Foals - 'Cassius'
Just so you know, I wasn't down to review this single at all. I was meant to be reviewing Mystery Jets this week, but then this lot decided that they wanted to review that song instead, and what with me being a humble blogger and not a quite famous popstar, Fraser gave it to them - with good reason, I might add. But that doesn't mean I wasn't baying for vengeance. So, being the sneaky sort, I thought I'd review their song instead so I could penalise them for half-inching reviews when I'm not looking. That's got to be an automatic two-star deduction, right?
At least, it would be if I didn't like this song as much as I do. Pesky popstars!
There are many admirable things about this track - for example, I love the way it wastes absolutely no time at the beginning. No strung-out intro, no gentle build up, just right in there with the contagious refrain from the get-go. I'm all for brevity in pop, personally. A good pop song should be like a scene in EastEnders - the build up and the wind-down should all happen off-camera, you cut in as soon as the interesting bit starts and cut away again as soon as it finishes.
(I wonder if I'm the first person to draw a direct spiritual link between the Foals and Stacey Slater. I hope so.)
A convenient side effect of not wasting time is the amount of energy it leaves them to actually expend on the song. The melody is so bouncy and hyperactive that it leaves you feeling like you just ran up six flights of stairs - and yet despite the breathlessness of the tempo, Yannis's vocals show absolutely no sign of strain throughout the song, pushing you onwards gently and hypnotically, refusing to accept any tiredness from the part of the listener, like if the Pied Piper got a new job as a personal trainer.
I must admit that having listened to it several times I still have no clue what the lyrics are on about - indeed, spent two paragraphs trying to get to the bottom of it and they don't appear to be any more enlightened either, while suffered from the same initial mishearing that I did, before Google reassured me that there wasn't a homophobic slur in the lyrics after all - but there's just so much tangible joy that's gone into the process of making this song that I'm not even sure I need to know.
So, after all that, they not only stole my review, but by sheer force of their own gift for writing catchy popsongs, they also compelled me to give them a glowing write-up. At this rate, they'll have taken over the world by lunchtime.
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 10th
(Steve Perkins)
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