Marc Foster dubbed Supermodel a concept album (a queasy-at-best term when applied here) about "the ugly side of capitalism", a strange claim when you see that the only lyrics here dealing remotely with the horror of capitalism aren't even here at all but are on pre-order bonus track Tabloid Super Junky. Foster's (much more modest) claim that Supermodel is like "a talk with god" is a more believable claim, making the case that this album is at least a spiritual escape from money and advertising.
The most telling tracks are 30 second throwaway The Angelic Welcome of Mr Jones which is simply the whole band doing scream-to-the-mountain style religious cheering, and the slightly better "Nevermind", which recalls a less aggressive version of the guitar riffs of Radiohead's Airbag. Both share an eerily foreboding mundanity. Radiohead's song was about a car crash survivor who becomes a born again Christian, and Foster treads on similar messianic territory in Goats in Trees, singing "Well I was caught inside the wreck never found my way out/I was filled with indifference/The animals they were getting tired/So I sang them a song". It's an escape from consumerism through spirituality.
Before Supermodel I knew Foster The People only from their synthesizer heavy stoner lay-about hit Pumped Up Kicks, and despite the big ambitions the best moments of Supermodel are still the synthesizer heavy pop. This time the band add guitars to their repertoire, sounding like the understated indie-pop of current bands like Vampire Weekend put through a blender with the chrome finish of early MGMT productions. The worst moments on the album are when the instruments take over: the guitar solos on Nevermind give the band time to meander and bore, while final track Fire Escape goes for the slow mournful album-closer despite Supermodel not giving any hints of being this sort of album at all. Foster's cries of "save yourself/save yourself" feel misplaced after ten tracks of pure enthusiasm.
The simpler arrangements make for the most fun. Opener Are You What You Want To Be? combines the sort of "na na na" choruses with the African music-inspired chants and drum beats that pop up in all the best tracks. Foster's best moments as songwriter come out when he's dealing with heavy themes: if you think he has any big answers your very obviously barking up the wrong oak, but throwaway lines become awash with emotion when isolated. On the best track, Best Friend, Foster sings "When your best friend's all strung out/You'll do everything you can/Cause you're never gonna let it get 'em down". On Pseudologia Fantastica, a vast and adventurous (if a little overlong) track, Foster throws out gems like "I promised I would rid the world of feral animals" and "Another weekend massacre of opinion".
The album feels like a dud because of its own ambitions. It's the best case yet for Foster The People being a good band, being great with tight arrangements and addictive pop, and with Foster having the skills to be an impressively poetic lyricist. Yet the band strives for too much, Foster himself gets bogged down by big questions, and the album itself, considering its strong points, offers too little pop and too much darkness.
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