Sacred Hearts Club [LP]

by Foster the People

Overview

Neon-toned and deliciously funky, Foster the People's third studio album, 2017's Sacred Hearts Club, finds the group eschewing its pleasant indie pop sound in favor of an album of lightly experimental, fluorescent-lit, groove-based tracks. Produced by lead singer/songwriter Mark Foster and keyboardist Isom Innis, along with Josh Abraham, Lars Stalfors, and Oligee, the album is the Los Angeles band's biggest departure yet from the amiable, youthful vibe of 2011's Torches. These are kinetic, hip-hop-inflected tracks rife with '80s-style synths, finger-snapping basslines, skittering dance beats, and club-ready, falsetto-tinged hooks. If there's any contemporary touchstone for the band's approach here, the album-ending ballad "III," with its dreamy, pulsing synths and angelic, cloud-light melodic hook, certainly makes the case that Foster have been listening to a lot of M83. As if to announce the new direction, they kick things off with the steamy, new wave-cum-hip-hop jam "Pay the Man," which finds Foster diving headlong into a hip-sway-inducing rap. Similarly, cuts like the stadium-sized anthem "Doing It for the Money" and the sparklingly buoyant "Sit Next to Me," with their icicle guitar hits and bubbly keyboards, bring to mind an inspired mix of '80s Tom Tom Club and Prince, with just enough modern EDM flourishes to keep things from getting too nostalgic. Along those lines, we get the spacy electro-Motown of "Static Space Lover," the buzzy, blacklight-drenched house music anthem "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy," and the sexy, crystalline, digital hip-hop and R&B flow of "Harden the Paint." Ultimately, the beauty of Sacred Hearts Club is that it sounds like a Foster the People album without unnecessarily rehashing the sound that made them famous. ~ Matt Collar

Product Details

Release Date:	08/11/2017
Label:	Columbia
UPC:	0889854440510
Rank:	28549

Tracks

1. Pay the Man
2. Doing It for the Money
3. Sit Next to Me
4. SHC
5. I Love My Friends
6. Orange Dream
7. Static Space Lover
8. Lotus Eater
9. Time to Get Closer
10. Loyal Like Sid & Nancy
11. Harden the Paint
12. III

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Foster the People   Primary Artist
Ryan Tedder   Vocals (Background)
Stewart Cole   Trumpet
Mark Pontius   Drums,Percussion
Oliver Goldstein   Bass,Piano,Guitar,Synthesizer
Sean Cimino   Guitar
Jena Malone   Vocals
Gabe Noel   Cello
Mark Foster   Bass,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Celeste,Omnichord,Percussion,Synthesizer,Guitar (Bass),Tubular Bells,Bass (Electric),Synthesizer Bass
Isom Innis   Bass,Drums,Piano,Percussion,Synthesizer,Vocals (Background)
John Graham Hill   Drums

Technical Credits

Isaac Green   A&R
Greg Calbi   Mastering
Ryan Tedder   Composer
Darrell Thorp   Engineer
Keinan Warsame   Composer
Manny Marroquin   Mixing
Lars Stalfors   Mixing,Composer,Producer,Additional Production
Mark Pontius   Composer
Josh Abraham   Composer,Producer
Oliver Goldstein   Composer,Programming,Drum Programming
Rich Costey   Mixing
Steve Fallone   Mastering
Nicolas Fournier   Mixing Engineer
Patrik Berger   Composer,Producer,Drum Programming
Oligee   Producer
Rob Cohen   Engineer,Vocal Producer
Martin Cooke   Mixing Engineer
Jena Malone   Composer
Nathan Warkentin   Art Direction
Adam Schmalholz   Composer
Frans Mernick   Composer,Programming,Additional Production
Mike Schuppan   Engineer
Mark Foster   Composer,Engineer,Producer,Programming,Additional Production
Isom Innis   Mixing,Composer,Engineer,Producer,Programming,Drum Programming
Ollie Green   Drum Programming
Johnny Newman   Composer
John Graham Hill   Composer,Producer
Justin Mohrle   Composer
Dave Cerminara   Engineer
Cameron Graham   Engineer
Breanna Duncan   A&R
Tyler Page   Mixing Engineer
Cyrus Taghipour   Mixing Engineer