If you're reading this then you probably knew that already, because along the way they also received heaps worth of press and lots of hype, with people squealing about house parties, dubstep, afrobeat, math-pop, pretentiousness, appearing on teen drama Skins, the NME cool list and making slightly cringe-worthy appearances on Nevermind the Buzzcocks...

Still, here we are. My copy of their 'Try This on Your Piano' 7" could retail for £55 on eBay and so could the live 12" I bought (for just £7). Aside from making me small fortunes, a lot has changed since I bought these records it's weird to think people are talking about the same band that we were a few years back (let alone previous Edmund Fitzgerald members).

So from the singles, 'Hummer', 'Mathletics' (awful, awful song name...) and 'Balloons' everyone was expecting a disco-rock album, recalling the rhythmic qualities of Q And Not U, the guitar work of Minus the Bear and perhaps an undercurrent of intelligible dance (courtesy of band heroes, Battles). That is pretty much what we get, though a lot of it's drenched in reverb and there's some slow moments too, making this a pretty flexible album (accommodating both the Skins houseparty and the post-Skins houseparty hangover soundtracks comfortably!)

What it exhibits though, is that from their non-pop/disco-rock backgrounds the band sit awkwardly among the other indie pop bands in the NME. This is a blessing in one way as it sets the band apart from a few other bands that are getting the same amount of attention. But it's also a bit of a curse as they're really lacking any real 'songs' to properly execute their own take on 'pop' and instead just refer back to their comfortable disco hi-hat and dancey basslines... In every song.

Ultimately the whole experience is fairly unremarkable, whether you're approaching the band from the math-rock beginnings or from their more recent disco-rock styles. Rarely do the band take you by surprise like promised from earlier releases and instead we're oversaturated with this mid tempo Bloc Party-like, dance rock record that features the band's impressive but overused guitar style of no chords and a plethora of 12th-fret-and-above based guitar melodies.

On paper, it's a good idea and when they get it right ('Red Socks Pugie', 'Balloons' & 'Two Steps, Twice') it really works - you know their heart's in the right place but this album just shows that the band struggle to elaborate on their ideas (unlike Q And Not U who had 3 albums of fresh sounding, inventive dance-rock in them) and instead prove Foals to be more of a singles band than an album band.