Foster the People - Sacred Hearts Club

Foster the People
Sacred Hearts Club
2017
Spotify

"Pumped Up Kicks" to date is still Foster the People's biggest song. It reached number 3 on the Hot 100 and propelled the otherwise unknown Mark Foster into the mainstream. It felt like peak indie, just when electronic was starting to slip in. most comparisons are drawn between MGMT and Foster the People, but it wasn't until this album that Forster the People seem to fully embrace the electronic. "Doing it for the Money" legit has a trap beat with skrrts and the whole damn thing. It causes Mark Foster's delivery to be a bit more hip hop than one would like, and sort of puts the band on this odd footing right from the start. "Sit Next to Me" smooths things out a little and harkens back to "Pumped Up Kicks" with it's outro into "SHC". There are plenty of bones in all these songs, Foster the People clearly can write a tune, but it lacks that inspiration that their biggest hit had. It is almost like they have lost some of that imagination and wonder that that central to their early song writing. The boom-bat formula that many of these songs follow just starts to get a bit stale eventually. It becomes hard to sit through a full song let alone the whole thing, because it just doesn't really feel like any risks are being taken. In interviews Foster has said this album should evoke some of the psychedelic sounds of the 60s, but besides the awkward "Orange Dream" everything seems to be more based in electropop. It's kind of like Tame Impala meets MGMT, but bad.

Even the bridge on "Static Space Lover" feels like it has been done before, as the band tries to capture this pop rock tune. It's like Sacred Hearts Club can never find it's footing as each track is so different last, but never all that interesting. It is almost like they've attempted to create a blend of everything that has been popular for the last ten years, but they simply miss the mark. Then comes "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy" which is like almost dubstep i guess? No track is quite as confusing, and terrible for that matter as "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy", it is almost like it has zero self awareness that perhaps these tones and this genre is not for Foster the People. It's really quite sad because towards the end of the song they actually arrive at something good, but you have to wade through so much bullshit to get there I doubt anyone will be willing to take that ride. Sacred Hearts Club just feels out of touch from the minute it starts, and continues to miss on track after track. This is not the record you've been looking for.

4.4 out of 10