- Earlier in the year, Foals closed their fifth album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 with a semicolon. Now, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2 picks up where the former left off; in all its bone rattling, guitar driven glory.
On a record punctuated by its predecessor, guitar riffs are written in all capitals on single The Runner’ Vocalist Yannis Philippakis’ apogean howls are spurred by exclamatory percussion; the same snapping snares and rhythmic energy listeners felt during Exits - the first taste of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, back in March.
As you would imagine, sonic Easter eggs are scattered throughout Part 1. Interlude track Surf, part 1 an obvious nod, foreshadowing Into The Surf, which sees the former fully realised as a longing, melancholic elegy. Less obvious hints lie in Philippakis’ lyrical, existential dread. Part 2 closer Neptune, examining his own mortality, mirrors the last track on Part 1, I’m Done With The World (& It’s Done With Me).
Neptune’ a ten minute epic, cavernous and sprawling, provides the cinematic epilogue to Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2. It's The full stop Part 1 could not provide. Easily the most satisfying track of the odyssey, the band play with space and texture, conjuring imagery of a world on fire.
Splitting an album into two parts is risky business – will Part 2 feel like the B-Sides that didn’t make the first release? With Part 1 being immediately critically heralded as Foals’ best work – could Part 2 step out from the long shadow cast by its forerunner? Not only does the second chapter hold its own, it showcases a band at their creative peak. While guitar bands fade into obscurity, Foals prove yet again that they are the most redoubtable rock band of this decade. Period.
- Fiona Priddey.