Foals have teased a new studio album, describing 2026 as “the year of The Fire Horse”.
The Oxford band have not released a record since 2022’s ‘Life Is Yours’, but in a post on social media today (January 1), they have strongly hinted that a new album will be on its way later this year.
“HNY! 2026…The Year of The Fire Horse…” they wrote on Instagram. The post came alongside a photo of a recording studio and white board chart that appears to show the recording parts of various songs.
Check out the post here:
It comes just weeks after frontman Yannis Philippakis spoke about the possibility of a new record, telling Rolling Stone UK in December: “I’m thinking about a Foals record, for sure. We just took a holiday together in Iceland and we were chatting about a record, so I reckon next year, keep your eyes peeled.”
Back in 2024, Philippakis told NME that the band’s next album “could be the best Foals record yet”. He said at the time that the band “really want to have some time at home and apart to individually get replenished and be inspired – not make one out of a knee-jerk sense of obligation. We want the next record to be really special.
“We’ve been busy so it’s good to go out and smell the roses for a bit,” he continued. “I think we’ll make something special.”
In 2023, bassist Walter Gervers rejoined the band, following his departure in 2017. “After six years in the alpine wilderness guess who’s back in the band?,” Philippakis said. “Walter is back and better than ever. Rejoining for all the coming shows and into the future. Get ready, the boys are back in business.”
NME awarded ‘Life Is Yours’ four stars, writing: “Lord knows we’ve needed this. You’ll feel the love if you catch them headlining The Other Stage on the Friday night of next weekend’s Glastonbury, or if you just let this record into your life for a lost sun-soaked hour in the park: Foals are still peaking, so let’s come up together.”
Philippakis has been busy with his band Yannis & The Yaw, which he formed after meeting Afrobeat drumming legend Tony Allen in France in 2016. Allen passed away in 2020, but the band released their EP ‘Lagos Paris London’ in 2024, and Philippakis spoke to NME at the time about being able to finally release the recordings.
He said he felt “unburdened” now that the material was being released, and explained that Allen’s passing made it “much more of a serious project” to tackle.
“There should be a feeling of galvanisation, and that all isn’t lost,” he said. “You can create beauty around and outside of things being on fire. The record is soundtracking this feeling of precipice. It doesn’t impart a specific message other than being the soundtrack to the protest. It isn’t didactic in any way – that isn’t my style.”
Philippakis also made his theatrical debut in 2023, penning the music for the new play The Confessions at London’s National Theatre, written and directed by Alexander Zeldin.
Explaining how he approached penning music away from the context of an arena-filling indie band, Philippakis recalled it as “a really fascinating learning experience”.
Yannis described the material as “harsh and brutalist in a way” with “metallic blasts of sound”.
“We refer to one of the repeated sounds as ‘an ancient elephant’ because it sounds like a primal blast from a brutal past,” he said. ‘I wrote a lot of music for Alex, and kept asking, ‘How much music can the play and the theatre take?’ One big thing I discovered was that what’s right for theatre is very different to what’s right for something filmed.”
