Foals have had a busy year. They released their new album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost — Part 1, back in March, were nominated for the coveted Mercury Prize for it and just unleashed its sister album today, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost — Part 2. A press release describes their brooding lead single, “Black Bull,” as “a bruising expression of conflicted masculinity & delusions of grandeur.” That certainly comes across during the song’s brisk runtime—it’s a bass-driven and reverb-heavy ripper that’s about as harsh as anything the band have ever done.
Previously Foals had shared Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2’s first three singles: “Black Bull” (via a video for the track), “The Runner,” and “Into the Surf” . They also released a remix album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1: Remixes, featuring Metronomy and others. Then they shared a cinematic video for “The Runner” in which frontman Yannis Philippakis fights his doppelganger. Then they shared an animated an animated video for “Into the Surf.”
Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 was nominated for the Mercury Prize (it didn’t win). Previously Foals shared a cinematic video for Part 1’s first single, “Exits” a video for “On the Luna,” and a lyric video for “Sunday”.
Then once the album was released album track “In Degrees” Then the band shared videos for Part 1’s “White Onions,””Cafe D’Athens,””In Degrees,”and“Sunday.”
The albums are the follow-up to 2015’s What Went Down. Philippakis produced the albums, which were recorded at 123 Studios in Peckham, London with the help of engineer Brett Shaw. The band also features Jimmy Smith (guitar), Jack Bevan (drums), and Edwin Congreave (keys).
In a previous press release Philippakis had this to say about releasing two albums: “They’re two halves of the same locket. They can be listened to and appreciated individually, but fundamentally, they are companion pieces.”
Philippakis said that the albums do address the environmental crisis our planet faces. “There’s a definite idea about the world being no longer habitable in the way that it was,” he said. “A kind of perilousness lack of predictability and a feeling of being overwhelmed by the magnitudes of the problems we face. What’s the response? And what’s the purpose of any response that one individual can have?”
Philippakis added: “Lyrically, there are resonances with what’s going on in the world at the moment. I just feel like, what’s the utility of being a musician these days, if you can’t engage with at least some of this stuff? These songs are white flags, or they’re SOSs, or they’re cries for help… each in a different way.”
New album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2 out 18 October.
The Fat Angel Sings 