ad-jingle lab, 'Pumped Up Kicks' sells itself as a party song with a hangover built in. Written while Foster was working at a fancy L.A. 'Pumped Up Kicks' is just one of the songs on Foster the People's debut album Torches that runs on the nervous energy of someone working hard to not be an also-ran. As he portrays himself in his songs, he's a recession kid: a hustler by necessity, who'll try any angle, but who's also aware that losing integrity is a big price to pay. for almost a decade, never quite making it. Foster is a twenty-seven year old songwriter who's been kicking around L.A. Comfortingly catchy but unsettled at its core, it's a beach drive with traffic, a weekend away with the cell phone continually going off.Īt the core of 'Pumped Up Kicks' is a conflict that seems to belong to its writer, the band's sneaky-voiced frontman and namesake Mark Foster. 'Pumped Up Kicks,' by Foster the People, is the accidental anthem of this messed-up summer, because it's just as creepy as it is sweet.

It's not a breezy, easy time, even when the weather's nice enough to put the top down. That's what this summer feels like to me, with the tensions inspired by economic woes, political skirmishes, tragic accidents and true-crime sprees never quite alleviated by the distractions Kardashian weddings and Harry Potter finales provide. What if the moment's prevailing mood is hard to pin down - sometimes voluble, sometimes glum? I'd call that floating anxiety, the Red Bull-and-vodka delirium of a culture seriously in flux. Music Interviews Foster The People: An Outsider Anthem, A Viral Hit

Up kicks