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Foster the People tackles issues in newest album

American Indie rock band Foster the People recently released their second album, β€œSupermodel.”

This album, released March 18, has 12 songs on it that differ in style and cover a variety of issues such as being in a relationship with a chronic liar in β€œPseudologia Fantastica” or finding one’s true ambitions in β€œAsk Yourself.”

β€œI really have enjoyed the new album and it has quickly become one of my favorites,” Business senior Jordan Evans said. β€œThey do a great job of having the tracks flow between each other, but at the same time differing their style between songs so there is a noticeable difference in sound.”

Foster the People, a band of three, released their first album β€œTorches” in 2011. Their most popular hit was β€œPumped Up Kicks,” a song that hit 3.8 million track sales, according to Rolling Stone.

β€œI wouldn’t be surprised to hear some of their songs, specifically β€˜Best Friend,’ on the radio soon,” Evans said.

The band is known for β€œsynth-pop,” a type of music where the synthesizer is the dominant instrument. Although this sound is maintained in β€œSupermodel,” the album has a darker sound and also experiments with some acoustic tracks such as β€œFire Escape” and Evans’ favorite song off the new album, β€œGoats in Trees.”

Arts & Sciences sophomore Dakota Nerland enjoys their new sound as well. Although she enjoys the song β€œBest Friend” as it is similar to their previous songs, she likes the slowed down tempo and mellowness of some of the newer songs.

β€œI like β€œAsk Yourself” off of the new album because it was slower, and I like how it makes you listen to the words and the message it is trying to convey,” she said.

Here is Arts & Sciences sophomore Colton Brasel’s take on the new album:

Foster The People has released a new album that is holding its own.

The album β€œSupermodel” was released March 18 by Columbia records and has been doing well in local and domestic markets. It has been on the Billboard top 10 since its release and has been bringing in a steady stream of new listeners (including myself). Not too shabby considering it’s only the band’s second album ever since its formation in 2009.

I enjoyed listening to this album because it had catchy rhythms and was very relaxing. The style is a lighter rock sound with great accompanying vocals. It definitely is great to listen to while studying or during some down time. My favorite songs are β€œAsk Yourself,” β€œComing of Age” and β€œBest Friend.”

With this album the songs are well-distributed where 10 people could listen to the album and all 10 have a different favorite song

Many learned about Foster The People from their hit single β€œPumped up Kicks” which was very popular in 2011.Β 

The band tried to keep the fear of trying to follow up their very successful album β€œTorches,” telling Billboard that β€œfear just crushes creativity.”

The album is more political than some will realize. The band told the Los Angeles Times, β€œa lot of the record is about Western culture, consumerism and the ugly side of capitalism.” They say it is just about the age we live in.

I definitely recommend taking a listen and you can decide for yourself. For a newer band that has already had a huge first album, it is pretty decent for a second album.Β  Time will tell, but things are looking promising for Foster The People.

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May 2, 2025

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