Holy Fire

About

Holy Fire is the third studio album by British rock band Foal, released on 11 February 2013 in the United Kingdom on Transgressive Record. The first single "Inhaler" first aired on 5 November 2012 on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show, with the music video being released later that same day. The second single "My Number" debuted on Later... with Jools Holland on 13 November 2012. The track had its radio debut one month later, also on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show. The music video premiered on 23 January 2013. The album managed to chart at number two on the UK Albums Chart in the UK and charted across the world including the number one spot on the Australian Albums Chart in Australia and number 86 on the Billboard 200 in the US. The album also received favourable reviews and was nominated for the 2013 Mercury Prize for best album. The band started demoing in early 2011 in Sydney, Australia with Jono Ma from the Lost Valentinos as the producer. Ma had already worked with the band in the past in the form of remix work. Keyboardist Edwin Congreave would later admit that the band didn't accomplish much in terms of new songs during the recording sessions in Sydney, however he stated "It wasn't like wasted, it was kind of disappointing. Jono Ma's got his fingers all over the place. He's opened our eyes to a lot of possibilities on the new record, synthesizers and drum machines that we haven't used before. It's given us a foundation to take our new record". Eventually, the band stockpiled various sound loops and sample, old synthesizers and drum machines for using on the recording of the album. After a few more demo and recording sessions throughout 2011 and 2012 in Oxford, the band went to record the album with production duo Flood and Alan Moulder and engineer CJ Marks at Assault & Battery Studios in Willesden, North West London. In August 2012, lead singer and guitarist Yannis Philippakis told NME that the new album would be "unashamedly funk", adding that "there are some heavier moments and some dirtier moment. It's swampy, some of the grooves are quite stinky". The album artwork was designed by Leif Podhajsky, and the original photo is by Thomas Nebbia. The album debuted at No. 2 in the United Kingdom, which is the highest chart position by the Foals thus far. In the United State, the album debuted at No. 86 on Billboard 200, and No. 23 on Top Rock Album, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. The album has sold 41,000 copies in the United States as of August 2015. .

via Last.fm

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