In the years following Foster the People’s third studio album in 2017, Sacred Heart’s Club, during the height of the COVID pandemic, front man Mark Foster recalls wondering, “How can I make a record that is healing for me, and maybe for people who listen to it, too?” Now, seven years later, Foster the People is releasing its fourth full-length studio album, Paradise State of Mind, a cosmically hopeful and upbeat record heavily influenced by late 70s disco and early 80s New Wave. The album is not without its lyrical meditations on sadness and emotionally dark places, but overall, it’s a joyful blend of varied instrumentation, dance-floor beats, and catchy hooks. It’s all about balance – in life as in music. As Foster sings on the lead single, “Lost in Space,” amidst a double quartet of strings and Giorgio Moroder-inspired synths, “Love when I’m with you / a warm embrace / the more we give ourselves, the more we have to give away.”
So what does Foster the People, whose primary members are currently multi-instrumentalists Foster and Isom Innis, give away on Paradise State of Mind? They give away Prince-esque pop anthems in the album opener, “See You In The Afterlife” and a sneakily catchy ninth track, “Sometimes I Wanna Be Bad.” In “See You In The Afterlife,” Foster gives a thesis-type statement on the state of the world when he delivers the lines, “The headlines got us thinking that we’re all gonna die / Then convince us that we have to sell our ticket for the afterlife.” What else does the band give us? How about a brooding but propulsive disco extravaganza in “Glitchzig,” or a tale of hammy metaphysicality in “The Holy Shangri-La” in which “We’ll step in time and look into eternity / Through hard times / It’s ok to rely on something you’re needing to believe in / To get through to the other side.”
Needless to say, Foster the People has given us a lot on Paradise State of Mind. Nowhere on this record are the immediate mega (subversive) radio hits like the band’s breakout single, “Pumped Up Kicks.” Instead, Paradise State of Mind is closer to a concept album, a soundtrack for an ideal universal mindset. On “Let Go,” a self-confirming ode to the pursuit of peacefulness, Foster sings, “Let go of all the feelings that are weighing me down / Don’t worry cause in time it’ll come around / The things that we hold on to just keep us in the past / So let go.” This sentiment is reminiscent of “Hope,” the final track on Vampire Weekend’s album, Only God Was Above Us, from earlier this year. From the perspective of someone in search of a purely pleasurable listening experience, Foster the People’s latest record comes through in spades. Case in point comes on the title track when Foster gleefully sings, “And when I’m all alone / and my head is spinning out / I’m just waiting for your voice to pull me back into the clouds.” Same for us, Mr. Foster. Same for us.
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Foster the People’s Paradise State of Mind will be released on Friday, August 16th.
