Foxygen is so anachronistic the word anachronistic should forever be known as Foxygen.<\/p>\n
The band\u2019s sophomore album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic is more a document suited for the 20th century, circa 1970, if the band\u2019s name, sound (Mott the Hoople meets Velvet Underground), song titles (\u201cShuggie\u201d, \u201cSan Francisco\u201d) and lyrics (I live in the palm of your hand, down the stream, sea\/Get the flowers off the floor and drinking tea) have anything to say about it. This is not reason enough to deny the album\u2019s occasional charm, but at times it elicits the kind of titters one feels when your Baby Boomer father calls something groovy. Like, far out, man.<\/p>\n
That Peace & Magic is the brainchild of early 20-somethings Sam France and Jonathan Rado begs the question: Where are kids coming up with this stuff? There is an obvious influence of MGMT here, but even MGMT was more a child of the \u201980s than the \u201960s. Plus MGMT was thumbing its nose at the bands it borrowed from, but Foxygen comes across as sincere \u2013 it permeates with the stench of Flower Power.<\/p>\n
The patchouli-laced and ordinary \u201cIn the Darkness\u201d opens the proceedings, some Sgt. Peppers horns interspersed with quiet piano and straight-forward drum play. \u201cMaybe in space there\u2019s an alien race\/I wouldn\u2019t be surprised\u201d France sings amidst the quiet two-minute swirl. \u201cNo Destruction\u201d is a Velvet Underground-inspired track, as France spits out words in a Lou Reed cadence leading into a mirrored chorus of \u201cFemme Fetale\u201d. I can\u2019t tell if it\u2019s an homage or a total rip-off.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Francisco\u201d is ridiculous and intriguing \u2013 it\u2019s perfectly named for the tone it projects. When there\u2019s not a glockenspiel (!) there\u2019s a merry cliched sing-song midway through, as France\u2019s lament \u201cI left my love in San Francisco\u201d (yes, that is sadly the lyric) is answered with a female repsonse \u201cThat\u2019s OK, I was bored anyway.\u201d Honey, you don\u2019t know the half of it.<\/p>\n
The album\u2019s best song, \u201cShuggie\u201d excels by taking chances. The first minute of reggae-influenced guitar gives way to a cinematic tribute a la The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then back to reggae, again to Rocky Horror, followed (of course) by 20 seconds of funk. Did I mention it becomes a revivalist clapping song at the end? I know, it sounds messy, but it\u2019s the only original song on this album. The final three tracks make sure to reference David Bowie, The Kinks and T. Rex before bidding farewell.<\/p>\n
I can admire a band embracing its musical heroes, but it A: doesn\u2019t have to be all at once; and B: doesn\u2019t have to be so self-evident. Peace & Magic is a pleasant trip down memory lane but it\u2019s contents have well passed the expiration date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foxygen is so anachronistic the word anachronistic should forever be known as Foxygen. The band\u2019s sophomore album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic is more a document suited for the 20th century, circa 1970, if the band\u2019s name, sound (Mott the Hoople meets Velvet Underground), song titles (\u201cShuggie\u201d, \u201cSan Francisco\u201d) and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[148,397],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-foxygen","tag-we-are-the-21st-century-ambassadors-of-peace-magic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}