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A debut doesn’t usually arrive with its biggest song already famous. Torches did. By the time it landed on May 23, 2011, on Startime and Columbia, “Pumped Up Kicks” had been circulating for over a year and was on its way to the top of the charts. The album had to be more than a delivery vehicle for it.

It mostly is. “Helena Beat” and “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)” share that same trick the hit perfects: bright, danceable surfaces with something more anxious moving underneath. This is pop built to be played loud and then, on the second or third listen, to make you wonder what you just agreed to sing along with.

Ten tracks, one of the most-streamed songs of its year, and a band figuring out in real time how to live up to an accident.

Tracklist

1 of 10 covered

The songs we’ve dived into are lit in gold, tap to read. The rest are here for the full picture.

1 Helena Beat 4:36
3 Call It What You Want 3:59
4 Don't Stop (Color on the Walls) 2:55
5 Waste 3:26
6 I Would Do Anything for You 3:34
7 Houdini 3:22
8 Life on the Nickel 3:35
9 Miss You 3:33
10 Warrant 5:23

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See Foster the People’s full discography →

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