“They got exits covered, all the exits underground. I wish I could figure it out but the world’s upside down,” sings Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis, detailing the end of the world as we know it on Exits, the lead single from the Oxford group’s fifth album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1.
On the first half of this double album (Part 2 scheduled for an autumn release), nightmarish tales of climate change, doom and political turmoil are hidden in the signature rhythmic sway of Foals, with Syrups treading over an ominously sultry beat and in the light melody of Sunday, there’s a comfort in finding those you’d happily share a bunker with, before the song changes pace and switches to a nu-rave spin cycle.
Built as a synth-driven distraction from this exaggerated apocalypse, Part 1 clings onto the fragments of humanity that can be found amid the chaos but the despondency of the final track I’m Done with the World (& It’s Done with Me) hints that this could all change in Part 2.
And so we wait to find out how it really ends . . .
