Following in the footsteps of 2018's
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Pt. 1, the second installment of the groove-heavy, Oxford-based post-rockers' ambitious, two-part saga of a post-social and environmental apocalypse aims past the nosebleed seats and into the adjacent parking lot. Bold, brash, and cavernous, the ten-track set eschews some of the stylistic nuances of its predecessor in favor of something more primal and dark, yet still eminently danceable. There are no serpentine melodies to parse on funked-up, overcast bangers like "The Runner," "Like Lightning," and "Black Bull," the latter of which see frontman
Yannis Philippakis at his most vocally unhinged.
Foals have always been more about feeling and mood than knotty songcraft, and
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost doubles down on that predilection with meaty slabs of electro-soul dance rock that are as straightforward as they are spilling over with intent. Sonic outliers "Into the Surf" and the epic closer "Neptune" swap out driving beats for oceanic swells, Both tracks, specifically the just-over-ten-minute "Neptune," serve up some truly transcendent moments, but for the most part,
Foals are sticking to the formulaic darkness of past outings. Still, few bands are as adept at creating safe spaces with which to flail, lurch, spin, and kick amidst the ever-amplifying discord of the information age. Whether or not they needed two full-length albums to fill up the dancefloor this time around is up for debate, but while
Foals may be peddling a familiar product, there's no denying its efficacy. ~ James Christopher Monger