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Dec 21, 201091TLF is a bid to be less in your face than in your head, and while its effect is less immediate, it's a comedown that's way more fun than the party.
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90In broadening their horizons they've not sacrificed quality, every note and sound is perfectly executed. Foals have made impressive strides forward, and you'd be mad not to follow them.
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90It may not be an especially immediate album, and is definitely not one which can be listened to as background music for fifty minutes, but its slow-burning qualities turn what initially may seem a little messy, into a satisfyingly cohesive release.
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It's the ambiguity of styles, the insistence on bringing the listener along for a journey, that makes Total Life Forever such an endlessly interesting statement.
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It takes half a dozen listens before the quality of it really sinks in, and is so all over the place that only the most devoted won't find it initially maddening. But throughout is a braveness and naive sense of wonder.
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80Beautifully ethereal yet firmly rooted in careful dynamics, these distinct, late highlights should serve as a wake-up call suggesting that by blindly embracing pop structures, Foals are weighing appeal against integrity. The difference? Integrity lasts much longer.
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80Baffling yet hum-able at the same time, this is the work of a band without a clue where they're going, and it's all the stronger for it.
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80Total Life Forever is a massive leap forward for the band. The music writhes with a renewed ambition, capable of moving from near ambient strains of electronica to propulsive African funk in a drum break.
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80Total Life Forever's break with the past is astutely judged, the execution is even better.
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80Treacherous lapses notwithstanding, there's enough vim and invention here to suggest that Foals may yet prove themselves champion thoroughbreds. [June 2010, p. 96]
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80There are still big choruses here. But they now layer things deftly. [Jun 2010, p.86]
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Gone for the most part are the skittering disco-punk rhythms and fully engorged urgency that drove their material. Instead, you have a slower, more methodical approach that lets these pop gems blossom out in thin ribbons.
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80There is stillness and hush here, and a depth of emotion they have never accessed before.
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Like its perfectly integrated packaging, Total Life Forever is successful because of attention paid to the things around it, a combination of direct influence and creative rigor that makes for a stirring experience.
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80The band wisely retains the elements that worked the first time: intricate, jittery guitars, driving bass and creative rhythms, best displayed on the title track and Black Gold.
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80They do make em' like this anymore.
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Total Life Forever is still thoroughly identifiable as a Foals album, their personality and songwriting quirks shine through even the thickest of creative haze--they're making pop out of art, which is a pretty good recipe for a young band.
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80If this is their The Bends, it remains to be seen whether they can eventually produce another evolutionary leap on the orders of OK Computer and Kid A, but for the first time that kind of greatness doesn't seem out of the question for Foals.
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With Total Life Forever, Foals have objectively identified the shortcomings (shouted vocals, claustrophobic song structures) of their first album, and erased them while keeping their trademark mathematical riffing intact.
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76At every turn, Total Life Forever is inviting. Much more alive than earlier efforts, it's an album with a complexion that constantly changes with time....[But] the album's second half doesn't fare so well, drowning at times in aqueous atmospherics.
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The shimmery guitars and thundering rhythms of album closer "What Remains" show that the group does best when sticking to its own math rock genre
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70As a whole, 'Total Life Forever' may feel too self-consciously clever to really convince but Foals evidently have a brilliant career ahead of them and this could be its crucial cornerstone.
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It's not got the immediate clout of Antidotes; and it's not one to spin when prepping for a party (it's actually kind of a downer, apart from 'Miami', which kills). But if you work with it, something really ghostly happens.
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Where some see restraint, others may very well see refinement, and those who appreciated Antidotes' more spacy passages will find that Foals' reinvention of their sound is a calculated risk that definitely pays off.
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The songs are rich with relentless, complex instrumentation, the smooth, ethereal voice of Yannis Philippakas, and dubious lyrics about life.
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Fortunately, when grooves meander and sometimes gets a bit ponderous, the band's creative instincts usually kick in to right the ship. [Summer 2010, p.83]
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60While this album carries more instrumental and emotional heft than its predecessor, something remains off-balance. [Jun 2010, p.130]
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At its core, Total Life Forever is a good dance record: something you could leave on at a party and not stop moving to until its full 50 minutes have finished. But as much as it tries to run away from that, it isn't a whole lot else.
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All in all, though, Total Life Forever is a slightly more assured record from Foals; this time out they sound like they've taken complete ownership of their music.
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Foals' major label debut, Total Life Forever, keeps those elements intact, most notably on the title track and in the calculated urgency and cold sweat of "After Glow," but the band has redesigned the template to include a more expansive pop approach evinced by sprawling centerpiece "Spanish Sahara."
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