Oxford quintet, Foals, once described the sound of their sophomore album, Total Life Forever, as the sound of “the dream of an eagle dying.”

Lord knows what they were really talking about, but the aural offerings on their latest release (via Sub Pop Records) certainly play like Yannis Philippakis & Co. have broken completely loose of the math-rock umbilical cord they fled upon leaving cult sensation The Edmund Fitzgerald.

At times, the album installs a dreamlike haze, and clocking in at well under an hour, Total Life Forever’s nine songs can be played tirelessly back-to-back without getting obnoxious or overly repetitive.

On first listen, the album’s opener – “Blue Blood” –evokes images of Fleet Foxes’ Robin Peckhold plugging in and deciding to have a dance party. Philippakis’ voice is perfectly mixed on top off a solid groove provided by bassist Walter Gervers while Jack Bevan sounds just content filling his role behind the drum kit. The four-minute track is likeable on first listen and the rest of Total Life Forever follows suit.

There are still hints of the math influenced background (the first part of “This Orient” and the frantic, fuzz-laden breakdown on “After Glow”), but most of the nine tracks play more like a band’s attempt to just get some sweat pumping out of people’s pores.

The drum part that kicks off “Miami” sounds like a like Jay-Z sample, and the instrumental passages and anthemic vocals on songs like “Black Gold” and the album’s title track are the perfect sonic setting for Popov and PBR fueled drunkenness.

While Total Life Forever still has it’s quiet moments (a hushed intro on “Spanish Sahara” and the 49-second “Fugue”), backbeats and pulsating, organic bass are what make the album’s 40-minutes worthy of being kept within arms reach or your home stereo.

To finish it out, Foals display their gift for multitracking and restraint on album closer “Alabaster”. The rich vocal texture builds upon itself until it sounds like something that could fill arenas from sea to shining sea, and the band clearly holds back, allowing a basic guitar and bass parts to flourish into a swelling climax before slowing fading out.

It’s an appropriate ending to an album that is inconspicuously catchy and 100 percent worthy of your time.