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When Foals dropped 'Inhaler' at the end of last year, not only was it probably the track of 2012 but it also left the world in wait for what could be the album of 2013.
That first taste of the album sums up all that’s great about Holy Fire in five brutal minutes: it’s got filth, funk, fury and it’s flippin’ massive.
As Yannis squawks “I CAN’T GET ENOUGH SPACE” you can hear Foals battering down the walls of any genre of expectations that the world may have pigeonholed them into.
From the warped stoner rock of ‘Prelude’ and the Gwen Stefani bounce of ‘My Number’ to the dreamy Temper Trap meets kraut-rock charm of ‘Bad Habit’, Foals have added a greater depth of colour to their palette. This isn’t just the noodlings of five math-y scenesters – this is a Rock record with a capital R.
Future single ‘Late Night’ makes for the real centre-piece of the album. In the same way that ‘Red Sox Pugie’ and ‘Spanish Sahara’ were the monoliths that weighted down the previous two records, ‘Late Night’ is Foals showing that they’re at their best when expansively upping their own game.
‘Providence’ has a lot more weight on record than when the band gave it its scratchy “psycho-billy” debut back in Sheffield’s Queen’s Social Club back in November (when it was tentatively known as ‘Cleaver’). There’s a sense of the epic met with a curled-lip kick of bravado – like a spaghetti western set in the future.
Aside from the sparse nothingness of ‘Stepson’, Holy Fire is an accomplished and near-flawless listen.
Retaining their trademark intensity but shedding that introverted awkwardness, ‘Holy Fire’ is Foals at their most organic and universal. An incessant groove runs throughout the whole record – making Foals v3.0 beefier and ballsier than ever before.
This is arena-sized art-rock. Make way for Foals, may they get the space they deserve.
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