In the Shadow of "Pumped Up Kicks"3 Out Of 5 Stars
Mark Foster, who essentially is Foster The People, had to work on the road with an actual band instead of his one man studio project. It makes his/their sophomore "Supermodel" a more expansive album than its predecessor. The songs are richer, with fuller sound and Foster's vocals are more assured than before. There's less dependence on gimmickry and more attention to making the songs solid throughout. The first single, "Coming Of Age," drives down this path expertly.
However, "Pumped Up Kicks" set the bar pretty high and "Torches" was an average album built around a brilliant single. "Supermodel" doesn't have anything to match that watermark. Even with "Coming Of Age," the rest of the album is - again - a pretty average affair. "Are You Who You Want to Be?" does up Foster The People's rock quotient, and "Pseudologia Fantastica" plays around with MGMT's trippiness (so does "A Beginner's Guide To Destroying The Moon," a better title than actual song), but "Supermodel" shows little growth from Foster The People's debut. Download the mentioned songs and you get the best of what can only be referred to as a sophomore slump of an album.
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