Foals - Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: Part 1 (LP)

Foals hit a restless stride on Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: Part 1, released in March 2019, and you can hear a band retooling itself in real time. Longtime bassist Walter Gervers had bowed out the year before, and instead of patching the hole with a like-for-like replacement, they leaned into synths, crosscurrents of percussion, and a heavier emphasis on mood. The result feels tense and luminous at once, a city-at-dusk record full of flashing lights and uneasy weather.

“Exits” sets the tone with a slithering synth pattern and lyrics that conjure escape routes and sealed doors. Yannis Philippakis sounds like he’s pacing, scheming, watching the skyline for smoke. That environmental anxiety runs through the album. He’s spoken about the title as an old gaming prompt, but it also reads like a warning about the climate crisis and the data age. You hear it in the heat-haze of “Syrups,” which swells from a nocturnal groove to a stormy crescendo, and in “Sunday,” a two-part marvel that drifts like a melancholy hymn before snapping into a quicksilver dance coda. It’s one of Foals’ slyest tricks, and it lands every time.

“On the Luna” brings some lift. Guitars jab and sparkle, the rhythm section turns on a dime, and the chorus sails without losing that slightly wary edge. Then there’s “White Onions,” a scrappy, pogo-ready jolt that nods to the band’s mathy early days while keeping one eye on the mirror ball. “In Degrees” might be the most striking departure. Congas and hand percussion weave through a propulsive beat, keys flicker like neon, and the melody feels built for festival sunsets. It’s dance music in Foals’ image, tight and nervy but generous. If you’ve caught them live, you know how fully it blooms.

Brett Shaw co-produced with the band, and the palette is rich without turning glossy. Jack Bevan’s drums hit with muscle yet leave space for Edwin Congreave’s synths to speak. Guitars from Philippakis and Jimmy Smith arrive in stacks and filaments, sometimes serrated, sometimes glassy. The sequencing matters too. After all the kinetic rush, the closer “I’m Done with the World (& It’s Done with Me)” pares everything back to piano and voice. It plays like a curtain call in a smoke-filled room and makes the earlier alarms feel achingly human.

Critics heard the step up. Part 1 earned strong notices from The Guardian and NME and went on to be shortlisted for the 2019 Mercury Prize, which felt right. It’s a coherent statement that also broadens Foals’ toolkit. Fans who came for the bucking riffs of Antidotes or the widescreen roar of Holy Fire got those thrills in new shapes. The hooks are still sharp, the tempos still athletic, but the textures are more varied and the writing carries a lived-in melancholy.

Spin it on a good setup and the soundstage opens. The Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 vinyl presses bring out the low-end thrum on “Syrups,” the brittle shimmer of “On the Luna,” and the percussive lattice in “In Degrees.” It’s the kind of record that rewards a late-night listen after the city quiets down. If you’re crate-digging at a Melbourne record store, grab it. If you tend to buy Foals records online, this is one to bump to the top of the cart, especially if you’re building a run of Foals albums on vinyl from Antidotes through Part 2. Even folks browsing from afar, hunting through vinyl records Australia listings, will find this one easy to justify.

Part 1 also works beautifully as its own world, even though it was conceived with a companion. The follow-up would bring more grit and teeth, but this first volume is the twilight chapter. It captures the flicker of the present tense, the buzz of a crowded train and the distant glow of a fire. Not every band survives a lineup change with its identity intact. Foals didn’t just survive. They took the moment, turned the screws, and made a record that sounds restless in all the right ways. And if you’re eyeing the Foals vinyl shelf, this is the one that keeps finding its way back to the turntable.