Hello everybody! For my fourth review for The F.A.N. I wanted to do something a little different than my typical music video review, something huge, something extravagant, something you’ll never forget as long as you live!!!
An album review!!!!
Hmm, that sounded more impressive in my head…………………….anyhow, sit back, relax, and hopefully you’ll enjoy my review of ‘Torches’, by Foster the People
1. Helena Beat
We start the record with Helena Beat, and as soon as the beat drops (yo!) you realize that you have entered a realm of experimental pop, and you can’t leave until it’s finished.
The verses are okay for what they are, consisting of a catchy vocal line sitting over a more subtle beat than what we heard in the intro. The chorus is where the song really gets going, the vocal melody follows what the beat is doing (“sings it” if you will) and teh result is an incredibly catchy chorus. As I’ve learned, this’ll be a recurring theme all throughout this record.
2. Pumped Up Kicks
The radio hit, I guarantee that if you listen the radio you’ve heard this song approximately 347.5 times
Compared to Helena Beat, Pumped Up Kicks starts in a more atmospheric way, with a more subtle beat. The verses are great on their own, but coupled with the catchy chorus I can understand why this has been such a smash radio hit. Although, when you get pastthe song’s upbeat tempo, you reveal that the song’s lyrical tehem is prettty dark, dealing with murder. If I may, allow me to quote the chorus of Pumped Up Kicks
“All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better trun, outrun my gun
all the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run, faster than my bullet.”
Not the happiest song to ever exist, but it is still a fantastic song in its own right.
3. Call It What You Want
“run run run pa-sshh!” is the best way I can type out how the weird beat for this song sounds, it didn’t take long for them to dive right back into the heavily experimental sound. The chorus of this song is very, very, very catchy – it’s simple enough for you to easily remember and has a great melody to it, much more than Pumped Up Kicks even. This song seems to walk the border between heavily experimental and more “normal” sounding, and they are able to mesh the two together seamlessly in the middle during the breakdown. A very solid song with another catchy chorus, it seems that Foster the People know how to make you remember a song – there’s no way to forget the hook on this one.
4. Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)
If you’ve seen Nissan’s recent commercial for their Versa model, you’ve heard this song. I didn’t know that it was Foster the People until it came on while I was listening to the disk, but truth be told I’m not that crazy over this song.
The song is centered around a whistled hook, and while it is catchy I feel the song lacks compared to the other three. The chorus is memorable in it’s own right, but I just don’t think that this song stands out as well as the other songs, I’d have to call this one album filler.
5. Waste
Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered MusicExperimentalLand – step right up! The beat on this one is bizarre, even more-so than the initial beat in Call It What You Want. The verses are pretty sub-par and forgettable, but we’ve run into another catchy chorus! I hate to say that this chorus matches the others, and I hate to say that for every song, but it’s kind of true the farther I get into this record. I could imagine Waste doing well on the radio, it has a sing along chorus that people can definitely get behind, great chorus on this one.
6. I Would Do Anything for You
If you haven’t been able to tell by the title, we’ve hit the first ballad of the album.
The song starts with a very subtle beat, not as over-done as some of the other songs, and the verses of this song are more memorable than any other song. A lush Synth beat compliments the vocal melody through the verses, with lyrics with tons of substance – and that carries us to the chorus; another winner! The chorus on I Would Do Anything For You is a real knockout, easy to sing and remember, they have a potential radio hit on their hands with this one. For the most part, excluding the end’s weird background noises, this song is real subtle in its approach, there aren’t hardly any effects to get in the way of the melody – a real beautiful song.
7. Houdini
The band picks back up the tempo from the previous song with the piano driven Houdini. The verses are in a similar style to the verses in Call It What You Want, not completely sung-but not completely spoken either, just different. The chorus of Houdini, in all honesty, is severely lacking compared to the other songs, it doesn’t really stick out on its own. The verses and chorus for Houdini just kind of blend in with each other, instead of complimenting and standing independently from each other. That’s not too say it’s bad necessarily, but when put up against the rest of the record, it falls flat.
8. Life on the Nickel
The beat of this song sounds like a broken NES booting up, random beeps and boops and squeeps and squaps. The song jumps right into the chorus on this one, and it’s miles better than Houdini.
The weird NES beat stays with us through the verses, and added to it are more synth lines and powerful drums to help everything along. The verses are done in a similar style to Houdini, but the melody does compliment the unique beat; so it all blends in and feels right. The breakdown of this song is when the beat really picks up in its 8-bit goodness, coupled with the driving piano line it’s definitely a clever beat for a great song.
9. Miss You
Expecting a ballad? The techno dance-esque beat has something to say about that, this song starts fast and gets you tapping your foot. Even though the beat has a lot going on, it is a bit understated compared to other beats on the record, and it coupled with the synth line going on allows the vocal melody to shine through. The chorus is a short but sweet one, when everything but the synth line stops to let the hook shine through, and shine it does! The song follows the same formula, but the chorus really makes this song stand out, even among all the other catchy choruses on the record.
10. Warrant
Just as soon as we started our trip into the world of Foster the People, we have to end that trip, and we do so with Warrant. The intro starts off with a beautiful choir singing a nice melody, and it doesn’t take long for that foot tapping beat to kick in. However, the song takes a weird turn for the “normal”, as this song is comprised of traditional instruments, has opposed to the familiar synths and pop-esque drums.
The verses are a refreshing change, as it’s nice to hear Mark Foster sing with traditional instruments, the catchy bassline compliments his voice very nicely. We end the record with another catchy chorus, one of my favorites from the record; and one I could easily imagine getting a ton of radio play. Overall, Warrant is the perfect way to wrap up this record, simple, catchy, different, fantastic.
Overall: Foster the People are in a genre that I normally am not really crazy about, I’ve never been into the whole Indie Rock/Experimental scene. However, after hearing Pumped Up Kicks on the radio I had to hear more from these guys; and I’m very glad I did. In my opinion Pumped Up Kicks, while good, isn’t even one of the better songs off of this record. Almost every song has a chorus that you’ll remember, and the sound is a refreshing change from the heavily synthesized pop music that is popular right now (although that’s good too)
It may take a few listens for you to really enjoy this record as it is a lot to take in, but once you do chances are you’ll keep coming back for more.
I give Foster the People’s ‘Torches’ an 8.5 out of 10, there are a few filler songs along the way, but the catchy choruses and unique beats more than make up for that.