May. 23, 2013 - Issue #918: Protest City
We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic
Foxygen {recordings_bands_mg} We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic {/recordings_bands_mg}
Jagjaguwar,
3
There are people who like drugs in a casual way, as an every-few-parties habit to leaven an already enjoyable evening's passage. Then there are the people who like drugs the way you might like a morning cup of coffee, the ones who have a glass jar full of buds as a livingroom centrepiece.This latter camp is where LA-based Foxygen stakes its claim. We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace And Magic dreams longingly of that golden '60s era of both musical and ingestible experimentation: the harmonies here are gentle, the melodies golden—even when they're about bittersweet things—and the lyrics occasionally comprised of utter nonsense ("It's arms and legs / bacon and eggs" goes one couplet in "Oh Yeah"). The production keeps everything soft 'round the edges: rubber-band basslines, low-in-the-mix guitars and organ/synth/pianos all rub shoulders, but in a hazy sonic jam.
All of which to say: Foxygen isn't even really trying to put a modern spin on the sounds it loves, just embrace it wholeheartedly. The band's actually quite good at doing just that, and in its finest moments, 21st Century enlivens these old sounds as it basks in the past. Opener "In The Darkness" directly calls back to Sgt Pepper's, even, with a "we'd like to introduce you to ..." line mid-way through, while the fuzzy jam and shredded vocals of the title track recalls some Rolling Stones' rock 'n' roll swagger.
It's to 21st Century's detriment that it's easiest to talk about the album in terms of bands and sounds it's emulating, rather than its own indelible sound. But the album also proves that there's worse a band can do than linger in the past, especially when it grasps the nuances of its influences as well as Foxygen does here. Roll me another one. vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus
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