My Top 17 Albums of 2017 #12

Glorious homage to showstopping 70s pomp; tongue firmly in cheek. "They don't make 'em like this anymore."

12. Foxygen - Hang



Next: all's fair with modern country's finest wordsmith.

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...