by Maddie Knopke

I’d be lying if said I wasn’t anxiously awaiting another energetic and unforgettable smash hit from Foster The People on March 18 with the release of their second album, Supermodel. I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed when Supermodel wasn’t Torches II at all. Because it’s simply not. However, after listening to Supermodel a few times all the way through, I realized it was never trying to be.

We don’t even need to look past the CD’s front cover to get a feel for it’s deeply artistic outcry. The cover art depicts a girl, presumably a supermodel (hence the name of the album) standing on top of two hands holding a pile of solid gold bars hunched over throwing up some sort of poem ending with “for beauty I will gladly feed my life into the mouths of rainbows their technicolor teeth cutting prisms and smiling benevolently on the pallid hue of the working class hero” all enclosed by a barrage of paparazzi. In an interview with Rolling Stones Magazine, Mark Foster, lead singer of Foster the People, described the chief theme of Supermodel as criticizing consumerism and the modern version of self-worth while touching on the band members’ personal experiences. He declared wanting to redefine the word “supermodel” with this album, which is an extremely bold goal in itself. Recently we have been introduced to the idea that our social media craze has had a negative influence on us as a society and I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to claim that Supermodel is the first musical version of such criticism. This labels Supermodel as a musical harbinger for this new wave of societal-angst regarding the media. So, without even listening to the songs, it’s clear that the album is already making a statement.

For a few months leading up to the release of Foster The People’s sophomore album, they sporadically tweeted images of Supermodel song lyrics handwritten in some sort of shape or image relating to the quite poetic lyrics. Sure, it was a publicity move but we can’t discredit Mark Foster and his band. it’s obvious they are proud of these lyrics and didn’t intend for them to be a whimsical set of chart-topping pop jingles.

After being teased for months by these lyrics with unknown melodies, I finally got to taste the new sound a few days after the album’s release. Upon listening to the first track, Are You What You Want to Be?, I was searching for that Torches familiarity, but instead found a catchy melody broken up with a more gritty guitar. The same guitar sound is present in the second track, Ask Yourself. These first two songs already relate heavily to Foster’s concept of warped self-worth especially when he sings “you want more and ambition’s taken its toll on you. Well, hey, your confidence is fading with your youth” in Ask Yourself.

Making my way to track seven, Best Friend, I found that keyboard, trumpet and drum trio we remember from Torches’ hits such as Houdini and Helena Beat. This track may be the only one in Supermodel that could’ve fit in with Torches, but still remains true to the artistic vision Foster set out with in the second album touching on the subject of drug addiction. Although the drug here isn’t specified, it can be speculated that he is calling out our addiction to self image.

As for track eight, A Beginner’s Guide to Destroying the Moon, we are thrown into an electric tale of the dark side of capitalism. Foster sings, “And stop drinking the wine that’s been dripping from the lips of the gluttons and envying their bloody teeth. Yeah, you’ll never be whole.” A possible plea to humanity to stop our obsession with what others possess or else we will only continue consuming without satisfaction.

Further down is track ten, The Truth, combining synths with classical piano and drums mimicking the sound of a heart beat. Foster sings almost as if crying which is quite beautiful in lyrics such as “the world is so broken”.

Finally, everything we know about Foster the People is shaken in track ten, Mark Foster’s acoustic ballad Fire Escape. The song is the only on the album that is solely written by Foster. I get chills listening to the completely stripped and honest plea to Western culture to “save yourself.”

It becomes quite clear this album is no number-one-hit-generator but rather an artistic statement as a whole – artwork, lyrics and melodies in all. To appreciate Foster The People’s vision one must listen with an open mind to Supermodel as a singular work of art exploring topics of addiction, consumerism, self worth and depression instead of expecting a sequel to their Grammy-nominated inaugural album, Torches, that produced a multitude of individual hits.

Before completely writing off Supermodel as a failure based on precognitions set by Torches, give it a chance. Supermodel, a project three years in the making is ambitious in it’s more organic technicolor sound for a band famous for their claustrophobic energy-infused pop; but also ambitious in it’s artistic concept delving deeper into the band’s somewhat enigmatic concerns with society, requiring us to take Foster The People a bit more seriously.