Supermodel
Foster the People
Released by Columbia Records
Most bands who achieve major mainstream success often follow a trend that occupies the first decade or so of their careers—one that sees them unable to outdo their wildly successful debut until their third to fifth album.
A band’s second album is often an experimental attempt to prove the band is not a flash in the pan. The success of that album also often determines the future course of the band.
This is an important trend to keep in mind for a band like Foster The People, whose 2011 debut Torches was arguably one of the best albums of the year and yielded three smash hits on a 10-track album.
Three years after having shot from relative unknowns to festival headliners, their sophomore effort Supermodel has a lot riding on it. Waiting the perfect amount of time to disappear from our minds for awhile and make us eager for new music, the anticipation is not a question with Foster and company’s new release. The real question is, will their experimentation kill their momentum?
The answer is no.
This doesn’t mean the album tops or matches Torches, but it certainly comes close. Instead of delivering a group of instantaneously catchy indie pop hits, the band brings, after a year of recording all over the world, a more psychedelic, guitar heavy collection of a dozen tracks.
None of the songs have a running time of less than four minutes, and Foster uses much—though not an over indulgent amount—of this time on instrumental breaks that have guitars and synths battling it out over frenetic drum beats.
The only track that has an obviously outside-of-North-American influence is the album opener, “Are You What You Want to Be,” which has some clear reggae melodies going on in the verses.
From there we go to another infectiously catchy tune in “Ask Yourself” which, along with the first single “Coming of Age,” set the tone for a record of introspective, self-searching lyrics that are refreshing in their lack of relationship troubles.
Amidst all the psychedelic, electronic, and worldly experimentation, one thing that comes as a surprise and was not heard at all on Torches is an acoustic guitar—on three songs the band goes softer than they ever did before and gives the album a nice dynamic.
Melodically, lyrically, and rhythmically strong throughout—though potentially lacking a hit on the level of “Pumped Up Kicks”—Supermodel is easy listening for any fan of Foster The People’s previous work and will very likely re-assert the band’s status as festival headliners and radio favourites.
