Foals, What Went Down - Album review

Download: What Went Down; Albatross; London Thunder

“Show me the foothold from which I can climb,” sings Yannis Philippakis in “Mountain at My Gates” from this fourth Foals album – and indeed, there’s evidence here of a questing determination to find new paths.

The band have characterised What Went Down as their heaviest album yet, and it certainly rages with a fresh fire: the title track’s descending chord-sequence is the closest they’ll get to “I Want to Be Your Dog”.

But by the same token, the nibbly little guitar and hi-hat of “Birch Tree” is the closest they’ll come to disco, an indication of their ambitions.

But large parts of it still rely too heavily on a dour combination of industry and portent, from the rolling tom-tom thundercloud of “Give it All” to the capacious windiness of epic closer “A Knife In The Ocean”. “Albatross” is the most gripping piece, its metaphor rolled out with an urgent momentum.