Monday, 13 March 2017

March #6: Love Is Like Foxygen


Do you love the 70s?

Do you love Steely Dan and David Bowie and Billy Joel and Abba and Jim Steinman and Neil Diamond and Jacques Brel? (OK, you probably don't love all of them. Unless you're me.)

As previously established, lately, I've been listening to a hell of a lot of 70s music. But not quite as much as Sam France & Jonathan Rado have, the duo behind Californian indie band Foxygen. These guys... they've been mainlining the more theatrical side of 70s pop-rock... and the glorious results are here for all to enjoy on their new album, Hang.

This is the lucky record I crammed onto a CD with the Jens Lekman album, having bought them both from emusic last month... and I may just come to love it as much as I do Jens.

7. Foxygen - Follow The Leader

I picked the opening track to showcase today as it's the Steely Dan one, so probably easier to digest if this is your first exposure to the band. Plus it has a cool video...



I may well be back later to tell you about Avalon (which shamelessly steals the chorus of Waterloo as its refrain); or Mrs. Adams, which sounds like Bowie duetting with Billy Joel; or the theatrical Steinman / Diamond mishmash, America; or the Brelian, Scott Walker-esque glory of Upon A Hill which goes full-on Jackie... in under 1 minute, 40 seconds.

Yep, we have our second contender for the Top Ten albums of 2017 right here, folks. Not to mention the Top Ten albums of an alternate universe 1977...

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9 comments:

  1. C14 March 2017 at 08:57

    I thought I knew this - I don't - but it's so '70s that it took me right back to listening to my big sister's miniature orange transistor radio in our purple bathroom...

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    1. Rol14 March 2017 at 12:48

      We had much better colours in the 70s.

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    2. Anonymous14 March 2017 at 22:44

      The transistor radio in my house was massive not miniature, with a larfe, circular dial that needed careful handling to ensure that, every morning, you got it to land exactly on 247MW so that you could listen to Noel Edmonds on Radio 1 before racing off to school.

      JC

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    3. Rol15 March 2017 at 08:25

      Mine was always tuned to Wogan. Which probably explains a lot.

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    4. C15 March 2017 at 09:53

      When I say 'miniature' I do of course mean 'pocket'. A pocket radio. It even had a little wrist-strap thing in the corner, I think you were supposed to wear it swinging on your arm! Tuned in to either Radio Caroline or Radio 1 - my sister loved Emperor Rosko (now there's a name!)

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  2. Alyson14 March 2017 at 16:15

    Yes I love the 70s, and specifically 1977. Last year I kept coming back to the music of 1967 but having overdone it a bit, feel it is time to move on. This band (whom needless to say I had never heard of), the song and the video were all great. Funny thing is that although punk was really big in '77 it was more of a boy thing and the music I loved from then was by the artists in your opening paragraph - Ah, Steely Dan.

    Rich from Kamertunesblog (on my sidebar) is running a Forty Year Friday series where he features his favourite albums of 1977 and there is a big overlap with the names at the top already.

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    1. Rol15 March 2017 at 08:25

      Thanks for the tip, Alyson. I'll try to check him out.

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  3. Rigid Digit14 March 2017 at 19:34

    There's a touch of Mick Jagger going on there too.
    There were a few albums last year that had a distinct 70s flavour:
    Field Music - Commontime was stuffed full of Steely Dan-ism
    White Denim - Stiff was Boogie with a dash of Curtis Mayfield
    Whitney - Light Upon The Lake was noodly guirars with a 70s California/Laurel Canyon(ish) vibe

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    1. Rol15 March 2017 at 08:28

      I can definitely see Jagger making a video like that.

      Thanks for the recommendations. Field Music & White Denim are both on my list. Couldn't really get into the Whitney album though. Liked the sound of it but nothing seemed to happen. Much preferred the Dawes album All Your Favourite Bands as a modern day recreation of the Laurel Canyon sound.

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