‘Supermodel’ may not be what all fans are expecting, but it’s a mighty album nonetheless!
Themes emerging from this album bare a lot of despair. The opening song ‘Are You What You Want to Be?’ directly asks the listener where their morals lie when it comes to the distribution of wealth, focusing on the exploitation of the poor and how parts of society ignore and write them off.
Foster the People’s songs have always had strong meanings and themes behind them. Take hit single ‘Pumped Up Kicks‘ as an example. This song takes on the story behind school shootings. Another example of this is ‘Waste‘ which is an emotional story of standing by friends through thick and thin. Things like this, along with the musical styling’s are where connections are made. When listening to ‘Coming of Age‘ it is easy to get the feeling that the band want to leave that part of what makes them who they are behind.
If any track stands out on the record, it would probably be ‘Fire Escape‘. It has a very minimal accompaniment with just an acoustic guitar, vibraphone and the occasional piano; it is completely the opposite of what I would have expected from Foster the People. Known for upbeat songs giving their two pence at indie club nights. Not just this song but this whole album is a massive change. The LP consists of 11 tracks, and out of these 11, ‘Best Friend’ is the only one resembling the road ‘Torches’ left behind. I can see this being a “marmite” album amongst fans of Foster. Some will hate the fact that it’s not a stylistic follow up to ‘Torches’, but others will love the change and versatility, or maturity if you will, in the new album.