Вторник 13 Май 2008, 23:00

Seriously, I'm marrying my Foals CD. I'm sure there's got to be a state where this is legal. I mean, there are 40-something year-old men marrying harems of 14 year-old girls out in Utah or somewhere, yeah? I want to marry good music that'll bring me up when I'm feeling down, let me rock out when I need to, and will never, ever wake me up in the middle of the night for a hand-job.

Indeed. I do.

So, you may be wondering why I'm going to such extreme lengths for Antidotes, the debut album by the Oxford dance-rockers. And why am I going at it so late, considering the album was released by Sub Pop a month ago. Last question first: I'm often in a state of brokeness, and am often too busy chasing down other music to pay attention to the obviously brilliant releases.

And Antidotes is an obviously brilliant release. Combining the energy and brashness derived from punk with some drum snares and bass lines made for serious ass-shaking, Foals makes rock n' roll fun without being cheesy. In fact, there's this wonderful attitude that permeates the whole album, a determination to rock out that is unquestioned.

For a moment, I thought I had a favourite track, which was Big Big Love (Fig.2). I loved the beautiful rolling guitar that manages to create a dreamy undulation to rock one's head back and forth to as the lyrics start:

See how the skulls we build
See how these towers we fill
Crash down fury red
The cracks in our hearts and heads

The simplicity of the repeated "Oh! Electric shocks! No!" sounds flat-out sexy to an American girl's ear. Fun fact: Many American women will tell you a British accent is sexy, despite there being somewhere around a bajillion different accents in the UK. These women, however, are not picky, and they will likely get pink in the cheeks as I'm sure I did upon hearing Foals sing and shout out their words. These particular exclamations serve as a fantastic build-up to the unusual melodic distortion towards the latter part of the song makes it sound as if tiny worlds are exploding.

Read into that what you will.

With an album so solid it's thicker than a brick, every single track has its own mix of goodness to bring to the table. Take Two Steps, Twice with its wonderful guitar and drum build-up, leading to the Foals going "Bup ba dup, bup ba dub, bup baaah…" until the build-up erupts into an explosion of sonic mastery and you find yourself doing some serious fist-pumping in the air.

Olympic Airways is a bit more demure, with a subdued delivery of the vocals, but the instruments tell no lies. It's a fantastic track to include on any MP3 mix, especially if you plan on giving it to a guy or girl you're sweet on. Heavy Water begins also similarly a little on the easy side, but it does a complete sneak attack with an instrumental jam, complete with some rocked-out saxophones, bringing in some fun and brevity.

The second song on the album, Cassius is the embodiment of the verve and fierceness of the Foals, with the tensely-high guitar and strong snares that sneer as the song goes into its bridge. Play this song loud in your car or apartment when getting ready for a night out, and you're guaranteed to start off on the right ready-to-dance foot.

Sub Pop's release has Hummer and Mathletics as bonus tracks, and both of these songs provide a fitting end to an album that will surely hold its own on your shelves not only throughout 2008, but throughout the rest of this decade and beyond, perhaps even "'til death do us part." Granted, I'm a fickle woman who has already bought two new CDs since my purchase of Antidotes, but Foals will keep me coming back for more of their dance-punk lovin'.