[6] degrees of blurbification…
[Video]
[6.00]
Scott Mildenhall: If you’d have said the band that were yelping “Cassius it’s over” in 2008 would be playing something as shimmering as this to huge crowds over a decade later, you would probably have been thinking of Guillemots. “In Degrees” brings to mind the blossoming of Bombay Bicycle Club’s last album, only ramped up to shouty Foals levels. For once that’s a gift, because this is a Catherine wheel of a record, never quite spinning out of control.
[8]
Alfred Soto: The “Eminence Front” sequencer and glitter ball beat is a helluva mirage, and if Foals had released “In Degrees” in 2004 they would’ve been hep cats riding the DFA train.
[5]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Right around the midpoint of English synth rock, like an average of “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Adventure of a Lifetime.” Fortunately, both those songs bang. And even though “In Degrees” does not add all that much to the picture, I would totally add this to a dance playlist for my less cool friends.
[6]
Ian Mathers: I can never fully hate on the band that gave us “Spanish Sahara,” especially since Foals very much still sound like that same band here; it’s just that their songs that actually work for me are few and far enough apart that clearly it’s only a very specific variation of their sound that appeals to me. For this album cycle, I’m afraid that spot was filled by “Exits,” so maybe it’s just that I like them dark and twisty instead of more straightforwardly spangly.
[5]
Hannah Jocelyn: There’s a particular kind of choir arrangement in pop music that drives me up the wall for no apparent reason. Whether it’s Pokémon, Talking Heads, or Janet Jackson, hearing the same melody simultaneously in several octaves always feels viscerally uncomfortable instead of visceral. An even more niche pet peeve of mine is this trend I’ve noticed of crushing the low end senseless on every master — take this Mumford & Sons song or this Jenny Lewis song, each from a different mixing engineer and producer but mastered by the same person. Randy Merrill also worked on this particular Foals record, and while the overproduction is not exactly his fault (that’s possibly due to the band themselves, co-producing with Brett Shaw), the lack of dynamic range (which might not be his fault either! I haven’t heard the unmastered version!) gives me personally a migraine. Look past all that, which you probably did because none of this bothers you, and “In Degrees” rules. Musically, this is both as heavy and as dancey as the band has ever sounded, but also avoids the pitfalls of their distressingly Imagine Dragons-y “Mountain At My Gates.” The lyrics, mostly not a strong suit for this band, are at least conceptually fascinating, placing a relationship falling apart in the context of a world doing the same; that choir is singing “Am I wasting my time?/I could not persevere,” an unexpectedly fatalistic punchline when applied to the universal instead of the personal. That “In Degrees” works so well is a miracle, but Foals is such an inherently [7] band that even their weaker songs would end up there anyway.
[7]
Anaïs Escobar Mathers: There’s something about this that doesn’t quite stick the landing for me. Maybe it’s because it sounds like something from another time (maybe 2008-ish electro indie pop) or because I’ve heard songs like this done better (Hot Chip, for one). But it’s not bad. The production is slick and it’s catchy; it’s just not that memorable.
[5]