Foster the People is one of those bands that will keep you entertained, but, most likely, do not have your top-of-mind awareness. Not sure you would say that “oh yes, this is my favourite band of all time”, but you certainly won’t skip it whenever it pops up on your playlist. Not having a record for seven years would probably be a death sentence in most cases, but, luckily, the indie/hipster circles have been hungry for good indie synthpop.

We’ve all liked “Pumped Up Kicks” back in the early 10s. A more knowledgeable fan of indie music would also name “Best Friend” and “Houdini”. With “Paradise State of Mind“, their new record, Foster the People does not reinvent the wheel – you will certainly hear the same music you liked from back in the 2010s with slightly different tunes and, probably, less dark lyrics.

My favourite tracks are certainly “Chasing Low Vibrations”, “Lost In Space” and “Let Go”. With “Chasing Low Vibrations”, the penultimate track, you can hear all the love that has been poured into the track (not saying there are any skips in this album, that would be a lie). It made me feel hopeful about something I probably wasn’t even aware of. Maybe it is just nostalgia, but it brings the synthpop from the 2010s I used to enjoy a lot.

“Lost In Space” has the sense of grandeur you would usually expect from the first track, but it being track number two certainly does the trick. Similar to “Future Nostalgia” by Dua Lipa a couple years ago, the music has certainly been inspired by disco music, although certainly not by the nineties. Seventies? Yeah, most likely the seventies.

“Let Go” is psychedelic at its finest. This is the kind of music you should listen to when you want to feel just a bit trippy. The flow, one of the most important attributes of psychedelia, is incredible. The lyrics support this overall feel:

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

If I were to create a playlist called “indie music to try mushrooms for the first time”, I would, without any hesitation, put the entire album there. A very enjoyable listen – I’ve been playing it for two months without feeling tired.