Band: Foxygen
Release: We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic (Album)
Release Date: Out Now
‘In The Darkness’ kicks things into check with a hippy loving worthy of Sgt Pepper, that’s to say it trips out and deviates across its 2 minutes of glory, but stays glisteningly melodic while the rolling bass that encapsulates the 60’s sound pins the track down. We actually made a point of listening to this track twice before moving on to the rest of the album, so easily top marks so far!
‘No Destruction’ plays out like Lou Reed on The Velvet Underground’s self-titled 3rd album, which is to say it’s clever, simple and effortlessly cool.
‘On Blue Mountain’ is just tremendous. It’s as if Motown took acid and married off to forgotten Beatles classic ‘Old Brown Shoe’. The guest vocals across the album hit the spot on most occasions but on this song it particular it pushes it to a whole new level. The vocals acting as a glue for the patchwork nature of Foxygen‘s work, making the sonic changes that little less obvious, there’s something nice about the haze-like production across the album
‘Bowling Trophies’ works with the formula that’s worked so far, playing the madcap card with grace and swagger simultaneously, even like on this track where there are no real vocals out front. ‘Oh Yeah’ on the album is another highlight while the title track and ‘Oh No’ bring the album to the ending it deserves.
That’s not to say the album’s by any measure perfect, take for instance ‘San Francisco’ which walks a tightrope between gaudy and great, for the most part it works but it’s clearly a weak track, trying to emulate Scott Walker along with more obviously 60’s girl groups like The Temptations and coming out more like a pastiche of Belle And Sebastian. The real crime is that’s 4 minutes that could’ve been used to extend the brilliant ‘In The Darkness’ into a full on freak-out. ‘Shuggie’ also just doesn’t work with the flow of the rest of the album and should have been culled, even from this 9 track album.
However all things considered, this album is insanely good at points, feeling like a lost gem of the ‘Nuggets’ era, with all the funk and soul of Motown.
7/10
Reviewer: Martin-john McDonnell
