100 Greatest Songs of the 2010’s #51 Foals – A Knife In The Ocean

Released : 2015

Such is the nature of the music industry in this decade without a name that Foals are one of a number of groups who headline festivals and sell out arenas without the help of chart friendly radio or lavish social media footprints.

This success looked it had to be said unlikely when they emerged with a math rock/afro beat template in what seemed like the wake of Vampire Weekend and a host of other preppy American bands. But their conscious evolution has been sustained and revelatory; by 2015’s What Went Down they were wielding Muse-like power chords expertly without the gory post-Queen aesthetics, whilst singer Yannis Phillipakis was taking his never orthodox delivery to thrilling new levels.

A Knife In The Ocean is the album’s closing track, one that builds spectacularly from just his voice and tinkling guitars into a shuddering, turned up to 11 climax, it’s epic closure  confirming both he and his comrades feared to tread nowhere from that point.