Foster The People - Sacred Hearts Club (Album Review)
Thursday, 10 August 2017
Written by Jonathan Rimmer
Foster the People have always possessed more ability than they’ve been given credit for. Pumped Up Kicks, their big breakout single, arrived in 2010 off the back of the ‘landfill indie’ years and it was hard to escape the track’s earworm groove, which was later used on everything from talent shows to adverts to sitcoms.
In a way, that’s unsurprising. The band’s frontman and lead songwriter, Mark Foster, wrote the track while working as a commercial jingle writer. If anybody understands the value of repetition in selling a piece of music it’s him. The fact he can turn his hand to almost any instrument you set before him is usually overlooked.
On ‘Sacred Hearts Club’ he adds bass, percussion and vibraphone to guitar, piano and synthesiser. He also handles the bulk of production duties here, alongside several collaborators, as if there wasn’t enough to do.
And that’s the most puzzling thing of all: for all the different instruments and sounds and frequencies, Foster and co. don’t do anything remotely interesting with them.
The best thing that can be said about the record is that it at least manages to be derivative of a range of different acts. The band’s reveal that they were inspired by ’60s-inspired sounds and [psychedelia]’ is probably its least offensive feature.
Static Space Lover is the most overt tribute, crossing the Beach Boys’ dreamy harmonies (Hunger Games star and sometime indie musician Jena Malone sings on the track) with subtle trap bass. Foster’s good ear for production means this left-field detour actually comes off well and is, if anything, more convincing than the more by-the-numbers tracks.
The trouble is that by-the-numbers now appears to mean three-minute electro-pop tunes that are as forgettable as they are vapid. Doing It for the Money is the most obvious example as Foster squeals irritatingly over 808 synths, clapped snares and processed keys. Then there’s the utterly absurd Loyal Like Sid & Nancy, which packs forced raps, EDM-style drops, faux-poetic lyrics and cringeworthy piano into just under five minutes.
Perhaps that’s why it’s a welcome relief when Foster The People bust out the guitars and return to their playful older sound, however dated it might be. The post-punk Lotus Eater, for example, feels rushed and rudimentary but that’s precisely its appeal.
For the most part, ‘Sacred Hearts Club’ is a self-indulgent, over-produced mess that strives for merely pleasant and misses. The whiff of ‘60s psychedelia suggests the group are happy to learn from pop legends of yesteryear in order to progress their sound, but this is counteracted by their use of uninspiring structures and modern chart templates.
It’s easy to scoff now at Foster’s jingle background, but it’s clearly taught him how to write from a commercial standpoint. This approach reflects a worrying trend in modern music: use whatever instrument or production technique necessary to appeal to ‘consumers’. The 11 tracks here might be meticulously put together, but they don’t feel unified or authentic, and that’s enough to switch off any serious music fan.
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