Torches – Foster the People ★★★½

Year	Album	Artist	Stars	Score	Genre
2011	Torches	Foster the People	★★★½	75	Pop	Indie Pop	Indietronica

Like Foster The People’s lead single “Pumped Up Kicks,” their debut Torches was a refreshing and fun take on commercialized indie music and the indie pop scene quickly grew in the early 2010s.

The album’s singles — the aforementioned “Pumped Up Kicks,” “Don’t Stop” and “Houdini” — all had their much deserved time on the airwaves and as background music for commercials in the early 2010s, while “Helena Beats” kicks off the album in a great way, mixing the band’s indie, pop and electronic roots. Even tender moments like “I Would Do Anything For You” are inviting and accessible in a way that shined compared to the works of their contemporaries at the time. 

The band has evolved their sounds and reverted back to a more pop-focused structure a few times since 2011, Torches will always represent the warm memories of an era of music long gone.