Foals’ fourth record begins with a beast. Title track “What Went Down” is a violently propulsive slab of ferocious rock, with frontman Yannis Philippakis howling, “When I see a man, I see a liar” straight into the abyss. It’s a big leap from the band’s beginning—Foals’ 2008 debut Antidotes was a musical nervous tick, all twitchy and spastic. But in the three albums since then, that anxiety has spilled over into full-blown tantrums—wild, spinning songs
churning largely on the energy of Jack Bevan’s darkly funky percussion and Jimmy Smith and Philippakis’ twirling guitars. Tracks like “Birch Tree” and “Mountain at My Gates” prove Foals’ unique formula, pairing these pinging, tight riffs atop a heap of driving drums and rumbling bass—this is dance music for starless nights, for dancers desperately seeking release. Philippakis, per usual, is the album’s star. Few indie-rock vocalists sound so gloriously unhinged and emotionally raw. When he sings, “I’m on the red-eye flight to nowhere. How ‘bout you?” in “London Thunder,” you can’t help but want to board.