Weekly Poll: Favorite Foals Album

New album next week!

May be a little preemptive to put this years first album, but fuck it.

Rank em, tell us why, or just pick one.

Link to all of the other polls here. You can leave suggestions for new polls there or here. Whatevs.

 

For me it has to be Holy Fire. Every song on the album is a jam. The back half is super strong. It never feels like it falls off. I've loved them since Antidotes but always found What Went Down to be pretty forgettable outside of the singles.

Holy Fire
Antidotes
Everything
Total Life Forever
What Went Down

 

My kind of weekly poll! My choice is Total Life Forever. Consistent and cohesive throughout with several of the top-tier heavyweight Foals tracks for me (Blue Blood, Black Gold, Spanish Sahara). No wasted space, and in the context of their career it was such an incredible stylistic flip from Antidotes.

I would say that their albums have an issue with being a bit side A heavy. Not that side B is bad, it’s just that the first halves are so incredibly good (Inhaler and My Number back to back is just preposterous).

Considering Yannis said that Part 2 is the “bangers” record, I seriously cannot wait for next week. The singles have all been aces and Part 1 blew me away.

Wish this band got more love around here, but hey, more show tickets for me. I’ve seen them 10+ times and will never ever miss them when they come by. One of the best live acts in the world.

Total Life Forever
Holy Fire
Everything Not Saved: Part 1
Antidotes
.
.
What Went Down

 

This kinda blows my mind a bit. I've always found them to be such an AP type band. I don't know if they missed that UK indie bubble we had in the mid-00's with Bloc Party or what. And the fact that they've gotten so big on the alt stations has me wondering what people here aren't hearing.

Couldn't agree more about their live show. I was so happy with how little WWD they played when I saw them. lol

 

Case in point: 9 votes, 2 replies haha.

 

Holy Fire but none of them are bad, this band is incredibly consistent. I feel like What Went Down always gets snubbed when people talk Foals but that record has some great tracks

Holy Fire
Total Life Forever
What Went Down
Antidotes
Everything Not Saved

 

Holy Fire for me as well. In general I'm more into the latter albums. I get the hype for Antidotes, but I always prefered other bands that more or less did that same sound.

 

What Went Down
Everything Not Saved
Holy Fire

Havent actually listened to their first two

 

How can it not be Holy Fire? That album is beastly good.

 

The final choruses of Inhaler and Two Steps, Twice are both peak live music experiences.

 

New one (Pt 1) might already be up to #2 for me.

 

I went with Holy Fire, but it could have been Antidotes or Everything pt. 1. It just depends on my mood.

 

Just clocked this thread!

Total Life Forever
Antidotes
What Went Down
Everything Pt 1
Holy Fire

I would agree with the poster who said their albums can be front loaded though as their higher highs on most of the albums are on the first half.

Total Life Forever as has been said previously was such a risk for them. I remember when 'Spanish Sahara' was played by Zane Lowe and it definitely took everyone aback. The songwriting on the album is a real treat and took them away from potentially having the weird mathy twiddy gimmick. It's incredible.

Antidotes is class though. It has the highest highs but it also has my favourite Foals song (Electric Bloom) and the songs live are an absolute treat.

What Went Down does seem to get the harshest treatment of the lot and I don't understand why. I think because of how good the songs on the first half are live that the second half gets forgotten but 'Night Swimmers' is the perfect Antidoes/TLF vibes and 'London Thunder' could've been a TLF tune as well to be fair.

Everything Pt 1 just has a freshness and energy about a band that were carefree when writing. On The Luna and In Degrees are top tier Foals songs. So great.

Holy Fire is my bottom one and I've just never connected with it in the same way. It's where Foals lost me for a bit. Over time, I've grown more to it. 'My Number' is huge that nothing on the album really stacks up to it in my eyes and it also sticks out as the hit. 'Milk & Black Spiders' is the underrated gem. The songs really translate better live for me.

In summary, I love them. They're great.

I've always been fascinated by them though. They get lumped in with the indie scene in the UK but I don't think they fit there at all but in the USA, they seem to not be able to placed because of where they are positioned here. I always thought when I listened to them that they would fit in with Circa Survive/Dear Hunter crowd.