The album was preceded by the extended play III, which is composed of three tracks from the album. Departing from the organic, acoustic sound of their previous 2014 album, it draws upon soul, dance, and electronic genres while maintaining their signature indie pop sound.
The lyrics address themes of love, politics, fame, and youth, and, similar to their previous albums, are often at odds with the upbeat musical production. This is also their first studio album to feature long-time touring musicians Isom Innis and Sean Cimino as official members.
It received primarily mixed reviews upon release, with many critics praising the experimentation while disliking the album's lack of musical consistency.
Despite the mixed reception, the album's single "Sit Next to Me" has reached a peak of number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over two million copies across North America.
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.
Track listing
1. "Pay the Man" (M. Foster, M. Pontius, I. Innis, J. Abraham, O. Goldstein, J. Mohrle, Keinan Abdi Warsame) - 3:53
2. "Doing It for the Money" (Foster, Innis, Adam Schmalholz, Ryan Tedder) - 3:46
3. "Sit Next to Me" (Foster, Abraham, Lars Stalfors, Johnny Newman, Goldstein) - 4:03
4. "SHC" (Foster, Innis, Pontius) - 4:16
5. "I Love My Friends" (Foster, Innis, Abraham, Goldstein) - 3:45
6. "Orange Dream" (Innis) - 1:20
7. "Static Space Lover" (Foster, Innis, Jena Malone, Patrik Berger) - 4:00
8. "Lotus Eater" (Foster, Innis) - 3:02
9. "Time to Get Closer" (Foster, Innis) - 0:57
10. "Loyal Like Sid & Nancy" (Foster, Innis) - 4:40
11. "Harden the Paint" (Foster, John Hill, KNA, Frans Mernick) - 3:54
12. "III" (Foster, Innis) - 4:09
Foster the People
- Mark Foster – lead vocals, guitar, bass, drums, percussion, piano, programming, synthesizer, vibraphone, production
- Mark Pontius – drums, percussion
- Sean Cimino – guitar, piano, keyboards, backing vocals
- Isom Innis – piano, keyboards, drums, bass, percussion, backing vocals, production
Additional personnel
- Austin Mensales – guitar
- Derek "MixedByAli" Ali – mix engineering
- Manny Marroquin – mix engineering
- Chris Galland – mix engineering
- Rich Costey – mix engineering
- Martin Cooke – mix engineering
- Nicolas Fournier – mix engineering
- Jeff Jackson – engineering assistance
- Robin Florent – engineering assistance
- Cyrus "Nois" Taghipour – engineering assistance
- Tyler Page – engineering assistance
- Greg Calbi – master engineering
- Steve Fallone – master engineering
- Josh Abraham – production
- Oliver Goldstein – production, drums
- Lars Stalfors – production
- Jena Malone – guest vocals ("Static Space Lover")
Notes
Released: July 21, 2017
Recorded: 2015–April 2017
Genre: Indie pop, neo-psychedelia, indie electronic
Length: 41:37
Label - Columbia Records
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