Foals - What Went Down (Album Review)

Foals are a five-piece indie rock band from Oxford who formed 10 years ago in 2005, and they are currently a hot topic all over social media recently due the release of their ten-track new album - 'What Went Down'. What Went Down was recently released last month on the 28th of August, 2015. The five-piece consists of the multi-talented musicians; lead vocalist, Yannis Philippakis, Jimmy Smith on rhythm guitar, Walter Gervers on bass, Edwin Congreave on the keyboards and Jack Bevans on the drums. In all honesty, the only song that I know by Foals is their well-known 2012 hit - 'My Number'. Therefore, I am going to embrace this opportunity by being able to get a proper listen of Foals and see what the whole hype about them is.

Foals opening song is the title track of their album; therefore this track should hopefully give me a rough idea of what to expect from their album as a whole. The track has a punchy opening line that grabbed my attention straight away and it was;

"I buried my heart in a whole in the ground, with the lights and the roses and the cowards downtown."

All of the instruments remain very simple throughout the first two minutes of the song, until the chorus kicks in. You know the chorus has kicked in as lead singer, Yannis Philippakis shouts out the lyrics of -

"When I see a man, I see a lion. When I see a man, I see a liar."

I instantly liked their second and third track due to the groovy, indie rhythm on the tracks. This rhythm has been cleverly created by Congreave using a keyboard within the band, as it makes them a bit more quirky and allows them to stand out and differentiate themselves from other indie-rock bands. Their second song is called 'Mountain At My Gates'. The majority of Foals tracks off this album are incredibly catchy and these two give you a good example as of what is yet to come on the album, as this track has the noticeably contagious line of;

"I see a mountain at my gates, I see it more and more each day."

Their third song is called 'Birch Tree'. For some odd reason, even though it has an upbeat to it - I find this track incredibly therapeutic and soothing. However, I think this might be due to the way that Philippakis sings this song with a very melancholic touch.

"Come meet me by the river, see how time it flows. I'll meet you by the river, see how time it flows."

The mid-track of the album is a more lyrics-based song, and it is called 'Albatross'. Using his melancholic voice; Philippakis allows you to focus on the lyrics more, as he pronounces near enough every word very slowly and clearly.

"You sat by the banks of the river and you waited, till time rolled back and the water had abated."

Their sixth track; 'Snake Oil' is a lot less indie-rock, compared to their other tracks - and a lot more 80's rock.  With their smooth and cool guitar riffs, this track is a lot more different to the other songs on the album. That funky, indie beat that I like soon comes back on their seventh track called - 'Night Swimmers'. This track is perfect for the summer! It is just a shame that they didn't release this song as a teaser for the album earlier on in the summer. 

"Another hot summers day; and only we know the way to the cool blue lagoon, where we sleep until noon."

After listening to their eighth track 'London Thunder' I wanted something that would wake me up and make me excited, and the following track just didn't do it. The collation of songs have been ordered very badly, as the majority of songs are very similar - the order doesn't do the songs justice. The following track was called 'Lonely Hunter' and even though it did eventually kick in, it was quite near the end of the song and was only for a few seconds. The final track 'A Knife In The Ocean' just reminded me of the other two tracks, which makes me think that they have rushed the end of the album.

In conclusion; I like all of the songs individually, but I think that the album just doesn't work. All of the tracks are very similar, and they only had one ice-breaker song which was the rock one called 'Snake Oil'. There wasn't any songs that showed off his vocal range either and the band get no recognition as none of them stand out throughout the whole album, except 'Snake Oil'. Throughout any of the other songs, I never thought that any of the other musicians particularly excelled in their area of skill. I would not watch foals live as I imagine them to be a very boring act to watch. This is due to the fact when a band release a new album, and they release a tour to promote the album, their new work dominates the tour - therefore if the album appears constant and dull then surely their gig would too? Please do correct me if I am wrong though. I recommend the songs individually, but not the album as a whole. The second half of the album just appears rushed to me, leaving me very disappointed on behalf of my expectations.

6/10

Stu Whiston @ The Sugarmill - Stoke

Yesterday evening, I attended Stu Whiston's gig at my local venue; The Sugarmill in Stoke-On-Trent. Stu Whiston is an indie rock and acoustic artist from Staffordshire. Around 21:45pm was when Whiston and his band entered on to the stage. He politely asked the middle-aged audience to move to the middle, followed by Whiston introducing his opening song.

His opening song was called 'Silver'. This track grabbed my attention immediately due to the punchy guitars and hard-hitting drums, shortly to be followed by the vocals. You could tell straight away that all the members of the band are experienced musicians as there was no awkwardness on stage during their first song. The drummer had a noticeably excelling hypnotic performance, as he compeltely lost himself whislt playing and that is always an incredible thing to watch. The second song of the night was called 'Runaway' and you know that feeling that you get when a new song comes on the radio, and you just instantly know that you're going to like it? This was one of those moments. It was a very simple song, all the while it proved to also be very effective. 

 "Runaway, we could runaway."

On the third song of the night, Stu did a short introduction and stated that; 

 "This song was originally written on acoustic and was released about 6 months ago"

This track was called 'There Was A Time' and this is Stu's most successful song, therefore I can understand why he would be proud of it. This worked well with the band, however I have heard his acoustic version of the song online, and as a personal preference - I would have liked it if he had done the acoustic version at the end, to close off his set list. This is more of a meaningful, lyrics-based song so I can understand why it would be "pretty fucking big" as Whiston said on his introduction to the song.

"We used to be so happy, there was a time..."

The fourth track of the evening was called 'Not Enough Hours' and that was also followed by a short introduction; as Whiston stated that they are going to "slow it down a bit now" and he also innocently said how "there isn't enough hours when you think about it". The introduction was very slow and at the start of the song he sounded very similar to Jake Bugg, and as the song progressed you heard a bit of a Miles Kane twang to his voice. Half way into the set, Whiston performed a song called 'We Are The Ones'. Which surprisingly I thought sounded similar to Kings Of Leon - Beautiful War, due to the vocals and the melody of the track.

Before he performed his sixth track of the night he humourlessly said to the audience; "These can all fuck off now, I'm gonna do some acoustics". (On about the band). From this point, Whiston performed two acoustic solo tracks which were called; 'True To Life' and 'Another Day'. During the first solo performance; 'True To Life' Whiston had echoed vocals that proved to be extremely effective, and surprisingly quite a few of the audience members knew a lot of the words to nearly every song. So it looks like Whiston has already created a fan base. Then the second solo performance; 'Another Day' felt like there needed to be more of a punch to it, I think that this would sound better performed with a full band. But as the song is more lyrics- based I can understand why he performed it as an acoustic song.

The eighth song which was performed was one of my favourites it was called 'Dirty Day'. Stu got his band back on the stage again, and began to perform. I have listened to this song before and I liked it then. 'Dirty Day' really exposed Whiston's vocal range and his vocal ability. This track sounded highly inspired by Beady Eye, due to the whinning twang that Whiston has in his voice; like Liam Gallagher and Miles Kane. The second to last song of the evening was a cover of the well-known Oasis track; 'Bring It On Down'. The electric introduction did the song justice right from the beginning. Whiston had the Gallagher whine spot on, as I mentioned earlier he has a Miles Kane twang to his voice anyway. Oasis covers never usually quite make the cut, but this was an exceptional cover and you could tell that they have worked extremely hard on it and they did the britpop band justice. The last song to close off the evening was called 'Rock And Roll Show'. Whiston showed his showmanship skills as usual, by introducing his last performance of the night. There was a brilliant effort from the drummer, yet again. However, the bands performance as a whole was at its peak for their final performance of the evening.

"Rock the whole show, came and took my soul today."

The long instrumental also proved to be very effective, as it was different to their other tracks they performed within the evening. There was a phenomenal close off from the drums, and it was visually the best performance of the night.

In conclusion I thought that they pulled off a great show; and the only nit-picks that I really have, are just down to my personal preference. However, I would have liked Whiston to perform the acoustic version of 'There Was A Time' as this is also Whiston's most renowned track. He is a very captivating and talented performer and his catchy chorus lines are right up my street. You have got a bright future ahead of you and good luck with your future endeavours! Stu Whiston is releasing my favourite single 'Dirty Day' on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon and Spotify on the 25th of September so be sure to check it out on YouTube! Here is the link - https://youtu.be/h8m1byRiA38

Bring Me The Horizon - True Friends (Single Review)

Bring Me The Horizon or 'BMTH' are a five-piece Metalcore band from Sheffield. The male five-piece formed in 2003 and are currently formatting a new album called 'That's the Spirit' which will be released on the 11th of September. I know that BMTH are a little bit different to what I usually review, but I just thought that I would mix things up a little bit! Their most recent single release is called 'True Friends' and it got released on Youtube on the 25th of August. They have teased fans by releasing three other singles before their album finally gets released too, and they are called 'Happy Song', 'Drown' and 'Throne'. The five-piece consists of; Oliver Sykes on lead vocals, Lee Malia on lead guitar, Matt Kean on bass, Jordan Fish on the keyboards and Matt Nicholls on the drums. 

Bring Me The Horizon have been known to tone things down recently since their 2013 'Sempiternal' album which is drastically different from their previous work, due to minimal screaming being exploited and more singing being allowed. Their new songs are more similar to their recent work, than their previous songs. Anyhow, this evening I will be reviewing their most recently released track called 'True Friends'. 

The song introduces itself with a melodic guitar and Sykes' sharp vocals of;

"I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you, I'll forget but I'll never forgive you. Don't you know, don't you know? True friends stab you in the front."

After the chorus introduces the song; the guitar soon turns sour, the drums go heavy, the keyboard goes distinctively sharp and Malia on lead guitar and Kean on bass create ear-bleeding riffs. Then the second verse includes some of Sykes' notorious screaming;

"You got a lot of nerve, but not a lot of spine. You made your bed, when you're worried about mine. THIS ENDS NOW."

I'm glad that they have decided to keep a bit of screaming within their songs rather than getting distracted by just singing pop-punk as I think that they would lose their notoriority by just trying to create a new image for themselves. If you haven't listed to Bring Me The Horizon before; or don't think that they would be your cup of tea, I would definitely recommend that you give them a listen as they will be on your guilty pleasures list in no time! I actually really liked this song and I'm a fan of their work, whether it be pop-punk or metalcore; as I think that they are such versatile artists, they can pull any genre off. Therefore I cannot wait for the release of their new album!

9/10