Fox is a name that kept coming up whenever someone would start recommending obscure 70s pop and soft rock. I enjoy 10cc as much as the next guy, so I was interested. Throw in tales of an exotic female singer people retroactively compare to Allison Goldfrapp, and I had to hear it.
The thing about Fox, and particularly their self-titled debut album from which "Patient Tigers" comes is that it is pretty terrible. AMG, which rarely gives less than 3 stars to even the most pedestrian, ham-handedly executed records ignominiously pins 1 and 1/2 stars to the record. Listen to the entire thing, and it's plain to see why - the lyrics are warmed-over hippy-isms with none of the chemically altered intrigue or starry-eyed belief of actual hippies. Even lead vocalist Noosha's come hither drawl becomes more of a stumbling block than an attraction. The pudding-smoothe production is uniformly tight and professional, meaning over the course of this very brief album, it all starts to sound the god damn same.
In the right mood, and in small doses, however, Fox hits the spot like few others can. The keening slide guitar lead and Noosha's singing do indeed remind me of Goldfrapp's most recent record, which was also great in small doses, but trying as a whole. There's even a faint whiff of psychedelia here as the last word of the chorus ping pongs from ear to ear before the instrumental refrain comes back in.
To be honest, however, I chose "Patient Tigers" because its straightforwardness and relative lack of porno soundtrack flourishes (see "Spirit" for the full gamut there) is probably the least off-puttingly cheesy song on the album. I'm kind of partial to cheese, myself, so if anyone is interested I can upload the entire album.
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2 comments:
You've got "Paper Tiger" in your write up twice.
this is pretty awesome. maybe i should take your word for it that the album is a deal-breaker but i have this feeling that i'm gonna love it.
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