Today, Foals share a new animated video for their song "Like Lightning," off their recent album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2. The video was written and directed by the French animator Virginie Kypriotis and was premiered by Music Declares Emergency, an organization which promotes changes to improve environmental practice across the UK music industry. Kypriotis reveals: "After being angered by the world's greed, malice and ignorance regarding environmental issues, the story's hero simply decides to run away. The action makes him a kind of contemporary messiah who people turn to as they begin to change their ways. Although the film is about the environment, we wanted to create a new kind of message about it. Rather than just being pessimistic or even too sentimental, the idea was to use our anger to create something funny and hopeful to celebrate the people who are actually doing something about it."
The "Like Lightning" video depicts a world of unrestrained consumerism and the video's central character, George, is inspired to take action after watching nightmarish news reports of a dying planet. He hits the streets and soon inspires a wave of like-minded souls to join him. He discovers that the more attention he generates for the cause, the more things change for the better.
Foals are one of the most prominent supporters of Music Declares Emergency, which was founded in2019 by a group of artists, music industry professionals and members of the leading environmental charity Julie's Bicycle. In July, MDE declared a Climate and Ecology Emergency, which attracted thousands of signatures from all sectors of the UK music industry. Foals are one of MDE's numerous high profile supporters, alongside artists including The 1975, Radiohead, Robyn and Massive Attack.
'Like Lightning' follows the launch of the Foals documentary and concert film Rip Up The Road, which chronicles the band's tour in support of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1, and is available at Amazon Prime Video.
The band recently confirm an extensive co-headlining tour of North America, in support of their most recent album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2, with Local Natives. The tour will stop in cities including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Detroit, and Chicago (full dates below) and Local Natives will join them on the majority of these dates. Additionally, Cherry Glazerr are confirmed as support on most dates of this tour. Tickets for all dates are on sale now here.
Foals recently released Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 2 via Warner Records. The album completes the artistic statement and striking state-of-the-world-address of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost - Part 1, and the Associated Press says "these batch of songs prove Foals to be at the top of their game, making complex, brilliant music." Part 2 was #1 on the UK album charts & Part 1 was shortlisted for The Mercury Prize. The album is available on CD, digital and vinyl formats here. Special editions include orange vinyl available exclusively through indie stores and a picture disc which is designed to be added to the Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Collector's Edition boxset.
Collectively, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost is symbolic of Foals' trajectory so far. From playing chaotic house parties in their home city of Oxford to becoming major festival headliners across Europe, they've earned critical acclaim (NME and Q Award wins, plus Mercury Prize, Ivor Novello and BRITAward nominations) and fan devotion (1.7 million album sales, plus over half a billion streams at Spotify since 2015) in equal measure.
Foals Tour Dates
May 18 /// Phoenix, AZ /// The Van Buren
May 19 /// San Diego, CA /// SOMA ^
May 20 /// Los Angeles, CA /// Greek Theatre*^
May 24 /// Vancouver, BC /// PNE Forum*^
May 26 /// Salt Lake City, UT /// The Union Event Center*^
May 27 /// Denver, CO /// Mission Ballroom*^
May 29 /// Dallas, TX /// Southside Ballroom*^
May 30 /// Houston, TX /// Lawn at White Oak Music Hall*^
June 1 /// Atlanta, GA /// Coca-Cola Roxy*^
June 2 /// Raleigh, NC /// Red Hat Amphitheater*^
June 3 /// Washington D.C. /// The Anthem*^
June 6 /// Boston, MA /// Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion*^
June 7 /// Montreal, QC /// MTELUS*^
June 9 /// Detroit, MI /// The Fillmore*^
June 10 /// Chicago, IL /// Aragon Ballroom*
* Co-headlining date with Local Natives
^ Support: Cherry Glazerr
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