Followers of the band Foxygen may be familiar with the antics of frontmen Sam France and Jonathan Rado. Last year, their shenanigans culminated in a broken leg for France while on tour in Minneapolis, along with rumors that the band might be on their way out of the indie world.
Then out came …And Star Power from the rubble of their tumultuous starts and restarts, as another attempt to make it work as a cohesive musical duo. The sparkle of their first single, “How Can You Really,” generated wild anticipation for the rest of the album when the single was released in July. With the song came an insanely long track list that promised 82 minutes of pure, uncut Foxygen. But wait, there’s more! A “gaggle of guest stars” were promised to be involved in the making of the album, described as “a svelte 82-minute run time of psych-ward folk, cartoon fantasia, soft-rock indulgences, D&D doomrock and paranoid bathroom rompers.”
Foxygen promised weirdness and they delivered. In what feels like a huge push-back against cookie-cutter comparisons to the Rolling Stones and the Kinks, among other rock classics, Foxygen took a crack at stretching their sound in myriad musical directions without the input of a producer this time around. The result is a zany, rambling exploration of sound that touches on glam pop/rock (“How Can You Really”), punk (“Star Power II: Star Power Nite” and “666”), pop rock/R&B (“Could Have Been My Love”), noise/experimental/art rock (“Cosmic Vibrations” and “Wally’s Farm”), folk rock (“You & I” and “I Don’t Have Anything/The Gate”), and indie pop (“Flowers”).
Foxgyen clearly possess great musical range, but whether or not they needed more than the first 13 or 14 tracks to show off their talent is arguable. …And Star Power continuously slips down slides of charisma into puddles of muddy instrumental riffs, making this a challenging album to wade through. It’s an impressive attempt at growth and cohesion, which comes with the unfortunate side effects of blowing up in and spewing out of listener’s ears.
Although …And Star Power misses the mark as far as a respectable follow-up to We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, it marks Foxygen’s foray into uncharted musical territories, making it a thrilling listen nevertheless.
...And Star Power