FOALS Vinyl & CDs

Review: How in the name of all that's understandable can you follow up a Mercury Prize-nominated album that looked at the state of the world and answered all our concerns and questions about that in one fell swoop? How about by offering a heavier, louder second chapter, picking up where the last left off and yet emphasising different focal points? That seems to be the idea with "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2". It's Foals at their rockiest and most raucous, with the likes of (aptly-titled) "Black Bull" distorting the vocals and raising the grit on those guitars to 11. Things start off far more sparse, with "Red Desert"'s desolate synth keys invoking some dystopian wasteland. Perhaps the next destination for our civilisation. Whatever you think, from there we call at head-nodding, funk-driven rhythms, tear-inducing piano solos ("Ikaria" is pure beauty) and a finale of epic, soaring, hypnotic art-pop.

Review: It's been more than 10 years since Foals first ignited indie spirits with their Antidotes LP and following Total Life Forever and Holy Fire, the Oxford-founded group have held firm in purporting their fully fledged sound. The band's aesthetic has grown in size and stature over the years with this LP looking at what seems to be the large scale arena. The lighter, melancholic and finger picking techniques of their surf rock and synth subtleties appear nonchalantly in tracks "On The Luna" and "Exits" - with 80s UK synth and George Michael-styled vocals to boot - while its stadium ecstasy for the chorus humming "Sunday".