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Promise delivered, divided by expectations frenzied, multiplied by still-evident potential for future releases… equals a Pitchfork-style 8.6.
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They do make thoroughly exciting music that becomes quickly airborne, able to move the listener to a different plane with disarming ease.
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Their debut sounds sleek and exhilarating, although Foals seem cautious about completely breaking out of the punk-funk strictures that have confined them so far.
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MojoAntidotes feels like riding a tea-tray down an icy mountainside. [Apr 2008, p.106]
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They never let math get in the way of a good time. [Apr 2008, p.96]
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This is an exciting debut.
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Antidotes is frequently exhilarating, challenging but immediate, cryptic and catchy, calm then frantic, as intricate, itchy fret-webs are weaved around Afrobeat drums and far-out sonics.
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Philippakis loves further obscuring cryptic lyrics with his delirious yawps. Mostly that's fine, since sublimely hypnotic arrangements of horn bursts and techno glitch beats generally render meaning unnecessary. But all that yelping about "electric shocks" ("Big Big Love [Fig. 2]") might be better buried in a dub mix.
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A perfectly executed debut as might be expected from a band championed in OMM53 for their mathematical precision.
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By tossing some horns and a variety of dark basslines into the mix, the U.K. quintet creates intense, unique songs that are more than a sum of their influences.
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Foals make hard, trebly, uncomfortable, spiky, anxious, uptight, straining-to-be-different music, and for all that, it’s rather good.
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Foals are a tight band with hook-laden grooves. Not worth the hype, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
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The two guitars pick out cascading notes--never chords--against one another, the bass borrows from both Interpol and Gang of Four, and Philippakis' voice cries out in repetition wonderfully, but it's these occasional horn bursts, the electronic chops and blips, that truly complete the songs, making "Antidotes" not merely a lesson in post-new wave noodling, but evidence of the power and excitement of the genre and music itself.
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While it's true that the sheer precision of their playing is what makes some songs as great as they are, the organic touches of horns and textural washes of electronics help the group move into ground that hasn't been mined as much.
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Thanks in part to indie super-producer David Andrew Sitek, they've got a vibrant sonic presence, and they write excellent songs.
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They have crafted a terrific debut album and are prime to make a dent in the indie community.
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Alternative PressFantastic. This is the best new band Sub Pop has worked with in years. [June 2008, p.131]
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Antidotes might be a touch weird, enough to earn the badge of “musician’s music”, and its cryptic lyricism isn’t typical of a romp. But when Foals’ rhythms bristle and their guitars go colorfully spastic, the art house and dance house become one and the same.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 70 out of 83
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Mixed: 7 out of 83
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Negative: 6 out of 83
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Sep 15, 2019
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Feb 28, 2018This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view.
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Jun 9, 2015