Foxygen Get 40 Piece Orchestral On Ambitious & Divine ‘Hang’ LP (ALBUM REVIEW)

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foxygenhangHang opens like Mick Jagger covered in glitter telling you to just be yourself. Foxygen’s fourth official record picks up where they left off. The last song on their previous album …And Star Power, is this gentle 70’s tune that would fit somewhere right between the Stones’ “Wild Horses” and “Angie.” It’s titled also “Hang.” And that’s probably not an accident. So that might mean that this album is in some ways a continuation of their last. Like chapters in a book. A part of a whole.

…And Star Power caught a lot of people off guard. It was long, we’re talking 24 songs. But amongst the experimental madness there were some really beautiful moments. Hang sounds like those pieces. A darker and more lyrically relevant Foxygen that is still soaked to the bone with classic rock and glam. They’re using a symphony orchestra this time around and while that might seem strange to envision a rock band with an orchestra it simply adds to their grandeur. Let me comfort you by saying they sound much more like funk than anything classical. The strings and horns really add to “Avalon” which, while this is a term that has been used by countless creatives, I can’t help but want to think this is in some way a Roxy Music reference. If not for anything else, simply because Foxygen seem to be such a modern incarnation of the glam rock scene of the 70s. Winds and brass come in toward the end of the anti-nationalistic “America” and make it swing so that one almost forgets the ominous intro and cynical lyrics about how “If you’re already there, then you’re already dead. If you’re living in America.” Which couldn’t seem more fitting for the present time.

“Trauma” is loud and emotional in a really good way. And is basically saying everyone’s got issues, which is really connecting in a kind of depressing way. Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips plays on the album as well as members of the Lemon Twigs. And there is a really strong show tune aspect running through a lot of the songs on the record, which isn’t necessarily new for Foxygen but it does seem a bit more prominent. There is also this sort of call to action element that I’ve never really heard from them but which is all over this album. The last song, “Rise Up” preaches to “follow your heart if nothing else and listen to your dreams, nobody else’s will do.”

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