Review by Josh Felty
Rating: Listen! The latest, self-titled release from Cincinnati's Foxy Shazam is an absolute miracle to not only rock music, but the modern artform altogether. And that's not an overstatement by any stretch of the imagination. From the startling opening chords of "Bombs Away" to the love song lament of "Bye Bye Symphony" and onward to the infectious "The Only Way to My Heart", this album rings with the spirit of modern pop meets Freddy Mercury.
Take the opening lyrics to the stellar single "Oh Lord": 'Julian, it's a hungry world/They're going to eat you alive son, yeah/Oh Julian, when their fangs sink in/I'll stitch you but then I gotta throw you back in', and you see the sort of mesmerizing, metaphorical rock poetry at play here. There are thankfully many sort of styles at play, including roaring brass sections, tempestuous guitar solos, and the sharpest, epic showmanship reminiscent of Meat Loaf in his early years.
And keeping with that Queen vibe, a few equally epic piano ballads.
The song "Teenage Demon Baby" is quite the ear-catcher, not only for the title itself, but for its pulsating, steering wheel-thumping beat that sounds like a missing track from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The haunting "You and Me" begins with somber bagpipes before it segues into mellotron and piano-smothered greatness that perhaps nobody since Journey has been able to capture as far as love songs go.
Throughout an initial listen, it's hard to tell where the Freddy Mercury influence ends and Foxy Shazam begins. But upon further inspection, there's no doubt that this band's sound is illustrious and unique in its own right. It dares to make rock music fun and, dare I say, tongue-in-cheek once again. The array of layered vocals, studio chatter, and instrumentation (violins, upright basses anyone?) makes for a superb listen, recalling the palettes of sound utilized by The Beatles decades ago. In the end, you can tell Foxy Shazam had more fun making this album than thought humanly possible.
And perhaps that's what's been missing in modern music the past decade or so. The sense of wide open wonder and adventure in a strumming of a chord, the infinite possibilities in a vocal expression. It's almost as if that Clear Channel cork has been pulled off the proverbial bottle of kickass that's been drowning for so long in the abyss. As long as Foxy Shazam and similar 'ballsy' rock groups (The Killers and Foo Fighters spring to mind, for some reason) are at the helm, this ship isn't sinking.