NME Best 100_2000s (2012) said:
No.86 - Whereas Foals’ debut, ‘Antidotes’, was packed full with strange, vaguely math-ish constructions, like a spiky game of Tetris, the introduction to its follow-up, ‘Total Life Forever’, gaped like a hole in the heart. It’s sparse, deathly chilling and emotionally naked – Yannis sings rather than barks, and whilst the lyrics are hardly explicit, his order, or invitation – “Forget the horror here” – bears an alluringly universal resonance.

NME - Top 150 from 1996 to 2011 said:
No.14 - Whereas Foals’ debut, ‘Antidotes’, was packed full with strange, vaguely math-ish constructions, like a spiky game of Tetris, the introduction to its follow-up, ‘Total Life Forever’, gaped like a hole in the heart. It’s sparse, deathly chilling and emotionally naked – Yannis sings rather than barks, and whilst the lyrics are hardly explicit, his order, or invitation – “Forget the horror here” – bears an alluringly universal resonance.

NME Top Tracks of 2010 - No. 1 said:
Opening with Mogwai-style ambience and featuring an uncharacteristically delicate vocal from Yannis, ‘Spanish Sahara’ was our first taste of ‘Total Life Forever’ and served notice that Foals had matured. Inspired by a bleak moment gazing out at the Aegean Sea, lyrically it was Yannis’ attempt to capture the intensity of Greek myth. The way the song builds from calm to rancour is supposed to conjure the classical concept of ‘furies multiplying’ – though you don’t need to know that to appreciate the magnificence of the song’s final section.