LaRM day 155 (Johnny Flynn-Foghat)

Man there are five Foghat albums to get through later.  That's going to be a trial (except for the mighty 'Slow Ride' of course), but more of that when the time comes because first we have the Mumford/Marling/Noah also-ran Johnny Flynn and his second album Been Listening (2010).  Interestingly Been Listening is a much more impressive and diverse album than its first cousin Mumford & Sons' Sigh No More, with which it shares a substantial number of similarities.  Indeed its genetic make-up is pretty much identical to Sigh No More, but Been Listening wins out hands-down by being much less determined to get you all singing along and as such allows itself space to develop its songs, to let them work themselves out rather than springing fully formed at you and leaping about in raggle-taggle waistcoats and neckerchiefs.  In some ways I suspect that the greater level of complexity, and the less desperate need to show off in Been Listening is due in part to Flynn having other outlets to show off by (as a successful stage actor, appearing at the Globe opposite Mark Rylance just this summer).  It's certainly on the same essential pretend-traditional folk tip as Mumford & Sons (ie, it doesn't resemble Laura Marling's superb reinvention or Noah & the Whale's pop re-read) and although there is something a little contrived about the Flynn/Mumford sound it's still a perfectly fine way of rewriting music history, but when it comes down to it although it certainly isn't as instantly gratifying, I think Been Listening is a much more charming and creatively interesting record than Sigh No More.

Will Young's favourite "indie" band of 2008, Foals of Brighton town released their debut album Antidotes that year and were an immediate hit.  I can see why, it's kind of a bass-heavy nu-rave meets angular old school art-punk thing and although you can almost feel the band physically straining for credibility it's a decent and immediately engaging first outing.  Massively irritating single 'Cassius' is easily tempered by the far superior 'Red Sox Pugie' which follows it and in some ways that's the album all over - one song is a pain in the backside the next is a really great bit of distracted pop-rock.  It's jittery and anxious but it's not disjointed and if anything the greatest success of Antidotes is the clear suggestion that they can and will do better.

And better they did with 2010's much more focussed and impressive Total Life Forever.  A lot of the nu-rave elements have come out and the more obvious Wire/early XTC rip-offs have been smoothed out into something more original.  There's a less urgent feel about the album which makes the whole thing seem much more considered and worked-through.  I think that's also why there's a considerably lesser number of simply annoying tunes on it too.  One downside of the more precise approach is that some of the songs aren't particularly engaging, but the ones that work do so brilliantly and 'This Orient' really was one of the best tunes of the year.  It's all pretty clever stuff and there's a strong sense that they can only either fade away entirely now or continue getting stronger.  The edition I've got has a second disc of some little deconstructions of some of the album's songs which are passably interesting but the world can get by without.

Let's get some totally Dutch prog action underway, with the mighty Focus and their sprawling double-album musical chops showcase Focus 3 (1972).  Focus 3 has got the lot, from Thijs van Leer's dreamy wistful flute solo extravaganza 'Love Remembered' to Jan Akkerman's superlative guitar filigrees on international smash hit 'Sylvia', from the 3 minutes of medieval whimsy ('Elspeth of Nottingham'. Honestly, I'm not joking, 'Elspeth of Nottingham') to the 27 minute mega-prog blowout of 'Anonymus Two'.  Now the big thing about Focus was of course that in terms of instrumental prowess they were about as good as you can get, I should imagine members of Yes would have dreamt of being as skilful, but Focus never went so far as to have themes and concept albums and all that priceless guff, so what you get with Focus is clearly defined tunes whose sole purpose is to show off the technical work.  That does mean that it's all terribly tricksy and occasionally silly, and you can sometimes get lost in it all, but again, unlike most prog acts, they left a lot of space in their music so you never get overwhelmed by idiotic showiness. And it ends with the superb Jethro Tull-esque 'House of the King', which will be familiar to all Saxondale viewers.  I could certainly do without the bouncy bass-led jazz of 'Carnival Fugue' though.  The only other Focus I've got is a cheapo compilation album that was released in 1974 covering their work to that date, a lot of which is culled from Focus 3.  Of the stuff that isn't on Focus 3 we have, of course, the band's biggest hit and greatest tune, the yodel-heavy 'Hocus Pocus', along with the initially sappy, Gary Moore inspiring 'Focus (Instrumental)' (it rocks out by the end) and a couple of other minor hits.

 

And so we finally come to Foghat.  The mighty Foghat.  Strangely, at the quiz a couple of weeks ago one question was which Dutch prog act had a hit with Sylvia, and one team brilliantly put Foghat as the answer.  It made me laugh. I suppose nobody else in the world would have found it funny but it tickled me.  Anyway, if you want one quaintly British rock band desperately pretending to be American and failing to convince, then it has to be Foghat (their lead singer called himself "Lonesome" Dave Peverett).  Foghat were the southern fried US blues-rock band that it surprised nobody to discover were actually from London.  The first self-titled album, released in 1972 kicks off with a blues-boogie reading of 'I Just Want to Make Love To You', which sets out their stall from the off.  This is Creedence-riffing, Allmans-apeing, Skynyrd-ripping blues-rock played to the max, in that weirdly un-to the max way that only Brits can really manage.  In truth there isn't anything particularly wrong with Foghat apart from the fact that you can just hear their lack of authenticity.  In terms of the actual songs, they're really not bad on the whole and although you would be hard pressed to say that you'd rather listen to Foghat than the Allman Brothers and really mean it, the Foghat album is really pretty decent.

By the way, I should explain this is another one of those five album box sets that I got from work back in the day - we haven't had one for a while but we've got another coming up in the next few days and it horrifies me to say that it's the first five albums by Foreigner.  Still we'll jump through that burning ring in a room full of wasps and barbed wire when the time comes.  For now we're still digging the Foghat and it's third album, 1974's Energized next, but that thrill will have to wait until tomorrow.