Mark Foster and his L.A. band  are gauging all that has happened since debut album  ‘Torches’ cemented them as a staple on radio airplay. In a song that was projected towards the underground indie masses, Pumped to Kicks juxtaposed a sun blushed pop melody and the reality of disenfranchised youth. It broke – to everyone’s surprise – Foster the People on a mass scale, climbing the musical echelons with Foster admittedly aware that there was a certain freedom in writing the first record and not expecting anyone to hear anything I was working on.

Their sophomore album typifies a different pressure that the band has never been exposed to, and culled the creative liberty with the pressure to keep people happy. It is indicative by the first trio of songs on Supermodels. Are You What You Want To be, Ask Yourself and Coming Of Age are pertinent titles for a band that has undergone serious growth and sought to improve in every aspect they could.

Thankfully what remains is the rambunctious cacophony of sound, the angsty riffs, scratchy synths coupled with catchy hooks that Foster The People execute so well. Yet, Are You What You Want To Be is a variegated opener with African afrobeat vibes and is a conscious desire to eschew from the exact formula that derived such success.

Nevermind flutters more delicately with plucking acoustic guitar strings and dark-hued dusky vocals. Sonically it’s fitted with lyrics to match ‘ Be still my love,Would it take a shooting star? To show you life can bloom when somethings breaks, And when the pieces fall I’ll catch them all’

Pseudologia Fantastica pitches droning guitars and synths with an identifiable chorus, then switching tempo and gradually steering away becoming blissfully enigmatic. A Beginners Guide To Destroying The Moon flirts with a grungier experimental sound as does The Truth. The latter latent with heavy drums, throbbing keyboard pulses and trippy bass drops is the most complex track on Supermodels.

Supermodel is an introspective record riddled with the self-doubt and exhaustion. At times dark and tenebrous from the resulting fame and success of ‘Torches’, it delivers exactly what a sophomore album should, at a time when many don’t.