Pumped Up Kicks
"Pumped Up Kicks" is a song by American indie pop band Foster the People. It was released as the band's debut single in September 2010, and the following year was included on their EP Foster the People and their debut album, Torches. "Pumped Up Kicks" became the group's breakthrough hit and was one of the most popular songs of 2011. The song was written and recorded by frontman Mark Foster while he was working as a commercial jingle writer. Contrasting with the upbeat musical composition, the lyrics describe the homicidal thoughts of a troubled youth named Robert.
"Pumped Up Kicks"
- "Pumped Up Kicks" (A cappella)
- "Pumped Up Kicks" (Instrumental) (12")
September 14, 2010
2010
- 4:00 (album version)
- 3:38 (radio edit)
Mark Foster
The track received considerable attention after it was posted online in 2010 as a free download, and it helped the group garner a multi-album record deal with Columbia Records imprint Startime International. "Pumped Up Kicks" proved to be a sleeper hit; in 2011, after receiving significant airplay on modern rock stations, the song crossed-over onto contemporary hit radio stations. The song spent eight consecutive weeks at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, making it the first Billboard Alternative Songs number-one single to crack the U.S. top 5 since Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" in 2009. The song was widely praised by critics, and it has been licensed for use in a wide range of popular media since its release. "Pumped Up Kicks" also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The song remains the band's most successful hit single to date.
Writing and recording[edit]
Soon after Mark Foster formed Foster the People in 2009, he wrote and recorded "Pumped Up Kicks" in five hours while working as a commercial jingle writer at Mophonics in Los Angeles.[6][7] On the day of recording, Foster debated between songwriting in the studio and going to the beach. He explained: "I really didn't have anything to do that day. I was standing there in the studio, and this thought came in my mind like, 'I'm going to write a song,'... and then I was like, 'I don't feel like writing. I don't want to write a song.' I was a block away from the beach, and it was a beautiful day. I kind of just wanted to just be lazy and go hang out at the beach or whatever. But I just forced myself to write a song... By that time the next day, the song was finished."[8]
Reflecting on the lack of inspiration he felt when writing the song, Foster said, "I've heard a lot of other artists talk about this as well, like, 'I'm not inspired right now. I've got writer's block. I'm just not really feeling anything.' And I've felt that way, too, just not being inspired and wanting to wait for inspiration to come before I wrote. But I wasn't inspired when I wrote 'Pumped Up Kicks,' and that's what came out. So... it just solidified the notion that perspiration is more powerful than inspiration."[8] Thinking that he was just recording a demo, he played all of the instruments on the song,[9] and using the software Logic Pro, he arranged and edited the song himself.[10] The demo is ultimately the version of the song that Foster released.[9]
Music video[edit]
The music video, directed by Josef Geiger, features the band playing a show. There are also cuts to band members doing other activities, such as playing frisbee and surfing. Parts of the video were filmed at the University of California, Riverside and at a huge parking lot, on Humboldt St, Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles. The video peaked at number 21 on the MuchMusic Countdown in Canada.[37] As of 29 November 2023, the video has received over a billion views on YouTube.[38]
Reception[edit]
Critical reaction[edit]
"Pumped Up Kicks" received positive reviews from critics. Barry Walters of Spin said that with the song as their debut single, Foster the People "announce themselves as major players."[39] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone described the song as having a "slinky groove, misty guitar flange and delicious astral-wimp vocals."[40] Rob Webb of NME drew some parallels between the song and other indie pop hits like "Young Folks", "Paris", and "Kids" describing its rise in popularity thus: "artist writes (undeniably brilliant) pop song, makes it catchy as hell, but quirky enough for the 'cool' crowd, song subsequently gets some big pimping from every blog/radio station/Hype Machine user on the planet and, seemingly overnight, becomes utterly, irritatingly inescapable."[41]
August Brown of the Los Angeles Times called it a "reputation-making single" that "cakes Foster in Strokes-y vocal distortion atop a loping synth bass."[42] Jon Pareles of The New York Times called it a "pop ditty with dazed, dweeby vocals and a handclapping chorus that warns, 'You better run, better run, outrun my gun.'"[43] BBC Music's Mark Beaumont called the song a "psychedelic block party skipping tune." Reflecting on the song's fusion of various musical elements, Beaumont said the song is a prime example of how they "adapt Animal Collective's art-tronic adventurousness to incorporate the funky danceability of Scissor Sisters, the fuzzy pop catchiness of 'Kids' and the knack of throwing in deceptively downbeat twists akin to Girls, Sleigh Bells or Smith Westerns."[44] Matt Collar of AllMusic said the song, like other tracks from the album, is "catchy, electro-lite dance-pop that fits nicely next to such contemporaries as MGMT and Phoenix".[45] The Guardian's Michael Hann was less receptive, saying it "amounts to little more than a bassline and a chorus" and that "It's as irresistible as it is infuriating".[46]
Accolades[edit]
A Rolling Stone readers poll named it the second-best song of summer 2011.[47] Claire Suddath of Time magazine named "Pumped Up Kicks" one of the Top 10 Songs of 2011,[48] while Entertainment Weekly selected the song as the year's second-best single.[49] In end-of-year polls, writers for Rolling Stone selected "Pumped Up Kicks" as the 11th-best song of 2011,[50] while the publication's readers voted it the year's sixth-best song.[51]
A listeners poll by Toronto radio station CFNY-FM (102.1 The Edge) voted it No. 1 in a list of the top 102 new rock songs of 2011.[52] NME ranked it number 21 on its list of the "50 Best Tracks of 2011", writing, "Unusually for a song so omnipresent, listening to its hyper-upbeat melodies about a psycho high-school kid-killer is still an enjoyable experience."[53] The magazine's readers voted "Pumped Up Kicks" the year's eighth-best song.[54] At the end of 2011, the song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.[55]