''Holy Fire'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by British

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Foals A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal is ...

, released on 11 February 2013 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Transgressive Records Transgressive Records is an independent record label based in London, formed in 2004. Its founders, Tim Dellow and Toby L, first met at a Bloc Party gig organised by Toby's Rockfeedback website. The label's debut release was "1am" by the Subwa ...

. The first single "

Inhaler An inhaler (also known as a puffer, pump or allergy spray) is a medical device used for delivering medicines into the lungs through the work of a person's breathing. This allows medicines to be delivered to and absorbed in the lungs, which prov ...

" first aired on 5 November 2012 on

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

show, with the music video being released later that same day. The second single " My Number" debuted on '' Later... with Jools Holland'' on 13 November 2012. The track had its radio debut one month later, also on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show. The music video premiered on 23 January 2013. The album managed to chart at number two on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

in the UK and charted across the world including the number one spot on the

Australian Albums Chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

in Australia and number 86 on the ''Billboard'' 200 in the US. The album also received favourable reviews and was nominated for the 2013

Mercury Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

for best album.

Recording and music

The band started demoing in early 2011 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

with Jono Ma from the

Lost Valentinos Lost Valentinos are a band from Sydney, Australia. They released two EPs under the band name The Valentinos but changed their name in mid-2007 to Lost Valentinos due to the threat of legal action by soul artists from the 1950s, Bobby Womack ...

as the producer. Ma had already worked with the band in the past in the form of remix work. Keyboardist Edwin Congreave would later admit that the band didn't accomplish much in terms of new songs during the recording sessions in Sydney, however he stated " wasn't like wasted, it was kind of disappointing. ono Mas got his fingers all over the place. He's opened our eyes to a lot of possibilities on the new record, synthesizers and drum machines that we haven't used before. It's given us a foundation to take our new record". Eventually, the band stockpiled various sound loops and samples, old synthesizers and drum machines for using on the recording of the album. After a few more demo and recording sessions throughout 2011 and 2012 in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, the band went to record the album with production duo

Flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

and

Alan Moulder Alan Moulder (born 11 June 1959) is an English record producer, mixing engineer, and audio engineer. Early life Moulder was born on 11 June 1959 in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Boston Grammar School. He had an interest in music from ...

and engineer CJ Marks at Assault & Battery Studios in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of northwest London, situated 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933, and has formed ...

North West London The NW (North Western) postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of 13 postcode districts covering around 13,895 live postcodes within part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originally ...

. In August 2012, lead singer and guitarist

Yannis Philippakis Yannis Philippakis (Greek: Ιωάννης "Γιάννης" Φιλιππάκης) (born 23 April 1986) is the lead singer and guitarist of the British indie rock band Foals. Early life Born to a Greek father and a South African Jewish mother, ...

told

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

that the new album would be "unashamedly funk", adding that " ere are some heavier moments and some dirtier moments. It's swampy, some of the grooves are quite stinky". The album artwork was designed by

Leif Podhajsky Leif Podhajsky is an Australian graphic designer and art director, well known for his distinctive album art working with artists such as Tame Impala, Bonobo, Foals, Kylie Minogue, Of Monsters and Men, Lykke Li, Toy, The Horrors, Mount Kim ...

, and the original photo is by Thomas Nebbia.

Promotion and release

On 8 October 2012, the band announced a UK tour for November and December. On 19 October, the band announced the name of the album via their official Facebook page. One week later, a similar announcement revealed that the album would be released on 11 February 2013. On 7 February 2013, the band played an exclusive NME Awards Show with an audience of 400 people, debuting new material. ''Holy Fire'' was released on 11 February 2013 in the United Kingdom. Besides being released on CD and as a digital download, the album was also released as a limited vinyl boxset which includes a 12-inch box with exclusive artwork with marble-coloured vinyl, a DVD and bonus CD featuring offcuts, loops and studio workings. The box set also includes six double-sided 12-inch sleeves including lyrics and exclusive artwork, a 24-inch poster, a digital download code and a limited 7" of the single " My Number". To coincide with the release of the album, the band embarked on a UK tour that ended with two shows at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no govern ...

in London on 28 March 2013. Tickets sold out so quickly that the band decided to put on a matinee show. After this, the band spent a lot of time touring ''Holy Fire'' worldwide, including their first festival headline slot at

Latitude Festival The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, near Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006 and has been held every year since, apart from 2020, when it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 ...

in Suffolk, UK. this was very successful and well praised, including positive attention from Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn

Critical reception

Critical

''Holy Fire'' holds an average rating of 76 out of 100 on review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "generally favourable reviews". David Renshaw of ''

'' praised it as "a record that bursts out of the speakers" and added that although the album is energetic, "it's the way that the album as a whole unravels and blooms through repeat listens that marks it as Foals' finest moment to date". ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'' stated that " t only is ''Holy Fire'' utterly sublime, it's a record that's been six years in the making. A record where Foals have focussed their many triumphs and missteps into one cohesive statement". Ian Cohen of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' called ''Holy Fire'' an "ambitious record, one that operates on an artistic economy of scale, where the lustrous production and singles like "My Number" and "Inhaler" do the heavy work of confirming Foals' headliner status". In a mixed assessment, Andy Gill of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' called ''Holy Fire'' "a one-sided album: following the soulful 'Late Night', things plummet badly in the second half". ''

Fact A fact is a datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, which, if accepted as true and proven true, allows a logical conclusion to be reached on a true–false evaluation. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scient ...

''s John Calvert stated that "rather than some kind of righteous culmination, ''Holy Fire'' is by some way Foals' least interesting record".

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 2 in the United Kingdom, which is the highest chart position by the Foals thus far. In the United States, the album debuted at No. 86 on Billboard 200, and No. 23 on Top Rock Albums, selling 6,000 copies in its first week. The album has sold 41,000 copies in the United States as of August 2015. The lead single "Inhaler" peaked at No. 20 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''s

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart, making it the first time any of the band's singles appeared on American charts. "My Number" peaked at No. 34 on

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Ultratip Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium. Ultratop is a non-profit organization, created on the initiative of the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the Belgian member organization of ...

charts and at No. 83 on

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Mega Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutc ...

Track listing

Personnel

Foals

– vocals, guitar *Jimmy Smith – guitar *Walter Gervers – bass, backing vocals *Edwin Congreave – keyboards, backing vocals *Jack Bevan – drums

Additional musicians

*Ric Elsworth - additional percussion and

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

(''2, 3, 4, 7, 8 and 9'') *

London Contemporary Orchestra The London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO), founded in 2008 by Hugh Brunt and Robert Ames, is an ensemble of young musicians whose stated aim is "to explore and promote new music to an increasingly wide audience". LCO staged its inaugural season at ...

(''2, 3, 6, 8, 10 and 11'')

Arrangements

Hugh Brunt Hugh Brunt is a British conductor. He shares with Robert Ames the positions of artistic director and principal conductor of the London Contemporary Orchestra. Career Brunt was a chorister at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and a music ...

- conducting and string arrangements (''2, 3, 6, 8, 10 and 11'')

Album Artwork

– design and art direction *Thomas Nebbia – photography

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 2013 albums Foals (band) albums Albums produced by Alan Moulder Albums produced by Flood (producer) Transgressive Records albums Warner Records albums