12.
Foals
Antidotes

So I’m not really sure what ‘math-rock’ actually is, other than spiky indie with weird time signatures (maybe that’s all there is to it). In any event, they’re from Oxford, not Oregon, so it should be ‘maths-rock’. All in all, there’s a lot to hate about Foals. Yannis Philippakis is clearly an arrogant mother f. They are really pretentious (don’t face the side of the stage when you play live – it’s not cool, it just means I can only see half of you). They have ridiculous trendy hair. I mean, they’re ‘math-rock’, for fuck sake. Leaving all that stuff aside, though, this is a quality record of dynamic and original rock songs. There is work to be done: not much on this album is instant (other than perhaps, the superb single ‘Cassius’). In time, though, the odd noises and weird timings start to make sense, and something great emerges. Hard to dance to (you have to sort of wobble), but intriguing and involving stuff. In many ways the exact opposite of The Fratellis record, this is not ‘big grin’ bounce rock, this is serious sonic exploration. Using mathematics. Apparently.