Foals

After making a splash on the U.K. album charts with their debut, Antidotes, Oxford quintet Foals got much, much, proggier on Total Life Forever. Produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek and featuring horns from Antibalas on several songs,Antidotes is rife with incessantly buoyant Cap’n Jazz syncopation and super-foxy youthful yelping on tracks like “Balloons.” Total Life Forever, meanwhile, retreats into swarming, elaborate melodies, slowly cocooning its listeners in swaths of heavy-handed emotion and desolate beachiness. The single “Spanish Sahara” became a blog hit as well as a soundtrack staple, meaning the band’s shows should be full of “Why does this sound so familiar?” moments. 

Updated 04/12/2011