Foxygen
Sam France (Lead Vocals, Songwriter) & Jonathan Rado (Guitar, Keyboard, Songwriter)
“…And Star Power” (2014)
October 14, 2014 – Release date
JAGJAGUWAR – Record label
UFO space odyssey, romantic, emotionally personal and influenced by many different genres and artist’s – Foxygen packs a hit with this 24 track lengthy album “…And Star Power”, taking you through a truly mad creative journey. This album I believe is best listened all together, all the way through. Some songs have little quirks and are just extensions or intermissions to other songs. It’s a journey as a whole. They recorded this high-energy Cathartic album in their home studio in Rado’s garage.. aka: Dream Star Studios, near LA. It took them about 6 months to put together the record. Their live band continuously grows from the 2 of them (who have known each other & started playing together since grade school) to many other talented musicians. Their live performances have a theatrical feeling to it by the help of numerous band members, a symphony, and Sam’s high energy, of course. Together, France and Rado make a Big Bang of beautiful music that come from both of their creative minds.
Tracks:
(Vinyl 1) I: The Hits & Star Power Suites
Just like this first Vinyl states… this features the hits. 2 – 5 are classic and beautiful Foxygen songs that I sing with everything in me. When Sam performs his music live he really stays true to the harmonics and weirdness of it. I love how he altars and manipulates his voice. It is very expressive without saying much. It works very nicely for them.
Side 1 (A)
1 – “Star Power Airlines” 1:11 / Intro Song.
2 – “How Can You Really” 3:34
3 – “Coulda Been My Love” 3:05 / Awesome slide guitar in this song, accompanied by a gorgeous piano. This song glances back at what could have been setting the theme for the mass of the emotional songs on this album. “You can do what you want, you can do it all the time”.
4 – “Cosmic Vibrations” 5:01 / Seriously such an amazing song. Without a doubt my favorite Foxygen song. “If you want to, you can have me, you can have me but i’m all used up…in the sun, in the sunlight laughing… cosmic vibrations. oh love is the answer.”, “So where must we go again, to become friends”.
5 – “You & I” 2:17 / This song warms my heart. Sam’s voice is too beautiful and flows and sounds so easy with the guitar and sway’s perfectly with the backup voices. “Why doesn’t anybody help me? why doesn’t anybody care, why doesn’t anybody love me… why doesn’t anybody care….” and so it ends off with those lyrics into the abyss as the next track plays on.
6 – “Star Power I: Overature” 1:41 / These next set of songs play so seamlessly through to each other and it’s very odd to listen to them separately. Personally I think they are better as a whole, definitely what they intended, because it reveals different dynamics.
Old time-y sounds like I’m in a hotel lobby in the 50’s
7 – “Star Power II: Star Power Nite” 2:14 / Fades easily into and out-to other songs. It’s a more chaotic song with a faster pace to it.
8 – “Star Power III: What Are We Good For” 3:20
9 – “Star Power IV: Ooh Ooh” 1:50 / Very eerie song, perfect end to the first side of this album. Sam goes on saying “Nobody loves you like I do..” with a luau type of sway in the slide guitar similar to the sway in “Coulda Been My Love”.
II: The Paranoid Side
Vinyl 1, Side 2 (B)
Things get really weird on side B.
10 – “I Don’t Have Anything/The Gate” 4:36
11 – “Mattress Warehouse” 4:26 / Bubbly song that you can just drift away to. @ 2:50 the horns, piano and miscellaneous voices & sounds are very reminiscent of The Beatles “Yellow Submarine” album.
12 – “666” 2:05 / Fun little jam song.
13 – “Flowers” 3:11
14 – “Wally’s Farm” 1:58 / Little odd ball song but I love the ‘Syd Barrett’ -ness of it, in terms of being playful yet sophisticated.
15 – “Cannibal Holocaust” 3:48
16 – “Hot Summer” 1:49 / “This song is called hot summa”
III: Scream: A Journey Through Hell
Vinyl 2, Side 3 (C)
17 – “Cold Winter / Freedom” 6:14 / “floating around listening to Led Zeppelin..”
18 – “Can’t Contextualize My Mind” 3:54 / LOVE the guitar that comes in at 2:16.
19 – “Brooklyn Police Station” 4:21
20 – “The Game” 2:21
21 – “Freedom II” 3:53 / 1:40 – 3:10 is the heart of the song for me. All the instruments sort of start breaking themselves down, some sexy bass comes in then all the instruments join in together just to break down again. Throughout the song they remark, “freedom!”, “break away!”, “Can’t control you”, “The music’s back” all corresponding with the rhythm they play in. The song tunes out to a slower paced melody different from the rest of the song, singing, “I’m just trying to save myself from this world”.
22 – “Talk” 4:07 / They go nuts in this song. Sam repeats “Talk” in different tones then finally screeches “JUST KILL THE RADIO” I believe this track is an interpretation of all the mindless and mediocre noise of the radio. And I fuck with that.
IV: Hang On To My Love
Vinyl 2, Side 4 (D)
23 – “Everyone Needs Love” 6:47 / So many John Lennon vibes in the beginning.
24 – “Hang” 4:07 / Not sure if they did this intentionally, but this is the title of their following album, their most recent release ‘Hang’ (2017). The end of this song loops on forever if played on vinyl saying “Music will give you the rhythm and music’ll make ya dance!”
Instagram: @foxygenoffical / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/foxygentheband/
Twitter: @foxygentheband / Website: https://foxygen.kungfustore.com
Latest release from Foxygen – “Hang” (2017 Album)
Hear Foxygen perform live:
Cosmic Vibrations
(…skip to 2:20 if you don’t want to hear them talking. They talk about their brief meeting with Richard Swift and beginnings of their stardom.) Video is from early 2013.
Performance before the release of this album, “How Can You Really”, “Could Have Been My Love”, “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Hang” live on KEXP. Video was taken the a few months before they released this record in 2014.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy the record!
– Amra
rainbow waves 