Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 17/12/07
Label: Transgressive

Foals are preceded by a big reputation and, in the wider scheme of things, even bigger hopes. Having set out their stall on "Skins" and spasmed through a "Later With Jools…" performance, their name is expected to rank high on the BBC tastemaker list for 2008. The Oxfordshire five-piece's prevalence for repetitive strain injury dance-rock collides with the zeitgeist like a 12-tonne truck.

Whether there's much style behind the substance is another matter, mind. To these ears, their relentless riffery is like Rapture-lite, with some added Pigbag thrown in. Too pre-planned and considered for true greatness (you suspect the "Mum, what's math rock?" statement on their MySpace is some kind of in-joke) as a band, they come over more like a vocation than a way of life. Even the spontaneous call-and-responses that underpin "Balloons" sound like the end result of a focus group. And as a fighting unit, they struggle to punch their way out of a paper bag.

    by Adam Webb