Silas Price
Connector Contributor
Label: Jagjaguwar
Release: October 14, 2014
You’ve probably heard the music of Foxygen before. If not their own music, then you’re familiar with the pastiche of classic rock records that they have assimilated into their identity: blues, soft rock, progressive rock and folk all have a home here, and their sound is familiar and inviting. But, beneath the surface of saturated guitars, enduring hooks and the goofy band name, lurk sinister themes and unreliable narrators.
Having caught the indie rock world’s attention with last year’s impressive “We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic,” the band returns less than a year later with “…And Star Power,” a massive double album intended for “speedy freaks, skull krunchers, abductees and misfits.” It is no surprise that the record offers an impressive collection of psychedelic rock tropes, from modular synthesizers to nine-minute multi-part suites (complete with overture).
“Coulda Been My Love” and lead single “How Can You Really” offer straightforward pop songs to begin the record, relying on sweet melodies and simple instrumentation. But then we hear a distorted segue resembling a radio dial turning haphazardly, leading into the absolutely bonkers “Cosmic Vibrations,” and the true nature of the album becomes clear.
Foxygen take a page from contemporary psych-rockers The Flaming Lips, a band notoriously prolific and recklessly experimental, to indulge in their darkest insanities and weirdness. Case in point: the album is a whopping 82 minutes long. Not a second of this is wasted.
Sam France and Jonathan Rado still craft their songs like pop producers, but the arrangements are twitchy and unstable, and the band slips in cowbells, drum machines, horn sections and toy synths whenever they feel it is appropriate, any consistency be damned. The protagonists are lonely, agitated, paranoid, insane.
All the vocals were reportedly recorded on a cheap tape machine, which establishes a very lo-fi sound to this record. Much of it was likely conceived on tour for their previous album – a tour which was much gossiped about for tensions between various members of the band. Presumably these songs are where France and Rado, the songwriters and founding members, vented their stress.
While their previous album heavily explored themes of cults and lost love, this album bears the freakiness on its sleeve, and its anything-goes approach results in some alarming juxtapositions. The organ-driven surf of “Hot Summer” goes right into the feedback-heavy trudge of “Cold Winter,” before diving into the piano-stomping “Freedom.”
It is a wild ride of extremes, and Foxygen puts almost everything they have into this record.
As a result, “…And Star Power” is difficult to listen to in one sitting. The band itself seems to get a bit exhausted halfway through. There are a lot of intros, outros, free-for-all jams and disorienting transitions. Any cohesiveness must be worked out by the listener.
The variety of influences inspire the extended runtime, but the songwriting and sequencing doesn’t always follow in step. Songs like “I Don’t Have Anything” and “Wally’s Farm” feel like slow-moving clutter, and honestly catchy tracks like “Mattress Warehouse” and “Cannibal Holocaust” can get lost in the maelstrom.
It’s hard to berate Foxygen, however, because they achieved exactly what they intended with this monster of a record. There’s something in “…And Star Power” for everybody: some Velvet Underground here, some AC/DC there, a two-second soundbite of someone eating an apple close by. The album’s denouement, the seven-minute “Everyone Needs Love,” combines elements of Yes, Chicago and the Carpenters, complete with a soaring chord progression and the mantra, “You’ve got to hang on, hang on.” The song comes as a huge breath after the previous 70 minutes of schizophrenic chaos.
“…And Star Power” is a fun place to lose yourself, if you’re okay with losing yourself in a bit of claustrophobia.
Final Grade: B
