With the disappointing news that there would be no Supermodel X in 2024, the way there was a Torches X three years prior, Foster the People fans instead were treated to a new album. It’s the band’s fourth in 13 years, so clearly Mark Foster only releases music when he feels like it, making each release an event.
Unfortunately, Supermodel X would have been better than this discofied pop outing, which all but abandons the sound of Torches and the dark, compelling songwriting of Supermodel. As I wrote in the review of the band’s 2017 effort Sacred Hearts Club: “The indie rock aesthetic has been all but replaced with shiny EDM beats, computerized vocals, hip-hop influences, and a feeling of neon-colored dance floor immediacy.” I could say exactly the same about Paradise State Of Mind.
The album goes even further back than SHC, using a similar songwriting and production template but imbuing it with the sounds of the ’70s and ’80s. Disco and lite-funk abound, with computer bleeps and glitches here and there, sort of like Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories in 2014 but without the gravity. There’s also a hint of Prince here, which helps some of the songs succeed (like the brief, ethereal “Take Me Back”).
Drummer Mark Pontius left the band prior to recording; guitarist Sean Cimino recorded his parts here (somewhere? Maybe?) but also left the band prior to release, leaving Foster and Isom Innis to carry on. With music this synthesized, though, there’s no longer a pretense of rock or a band mentality. It may not be fair to compare a band’s current works to their work of a decade ago, but Supermodel remains one of pop’s great unheralded touchstones, a glorious, deep and dark album that had a lot to say about the world. It’s the kind of album one would expect at this stage in Foster’s life, not a party album for Disco Night at the library.
The album has its moments; Foster is too capable not to pen some winners like “Take Me Back” and the title track, but they are outnumbered by the forgettable (or, in the case of “Glitchzig,” the downright baffling), and the album gets worse as it goes on. The exception is the penultimate track “Chasing Low Vibrations,” which recalls the sound and spirit of the FTP of old set to a great lyric about freedom and unburdening of one’s expectations.
More of that would have been welcome on an album where style is abundant but memorable songwriting is scarce. If two albums like this is what we can expect from FTP in a seven-year span, I don’t care about having to wait until 2031 for the next project.
