Foals: Holy Fire [WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This Warner Records edition puts the Mercury Prize-nominated album on one LP. Holy Fire reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in Australia.

This edition

• Warner Records edition
• Stereo

About the album

Foals started Holy Fire in Sydney, demoing with Jono Ma of the Lost Valentinos, who opened their eyes to old synths and drum machines. Keyboardist Edwin Congreave admitted they didn't finish many songs there, but they came home with a stockpile of loops and samples, and after more sessions in Oxford they took it all to producers Flood and Alan Moulder at Assault & Battery in north-west London.

Yannis Philippakis promised NME an album that was unashamedly funk, with some heavier, dirtier moments, and he delivered. "Inhaler" builds from a twitchy groove to a roar and first aired on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show, "My Number" is a dance-floor strut that debuted on Later... with Jools Holland, and "Late Night" and "Milk & Black Spiders" show off a moodier, slow-burning side. Leif Podhajsky designed the cover around a photo by Thomas Nebbia.

It drew favourable reviews and charted around the world, from the UK to Australia to the Billboard 200. Philippakis also described some of the grooves as quite stinky. He meant it as a compliment, and so, for the record, do we.

Also at Kops: more Foals on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Warner Records / Transgressive, a reissue of the 2013 album.