FOCUS II [AKA: MOVING WAVES]

This is the first classic Focus album. Getting rid of psychedelic and folk influence and putting the feet deeper in classical music. The astonishing "Hocus Focus" is a great rocking number with fantastic vocals and can be considered a rock anthem. With its length over 6 minutes it is also a bit repetitive. It's quite different from the more introverted material on the album. "Le clochard" is a beautiful classically inspired guitar number, unlike what Steve Hackett would produce in the future. "Janis" has warm flute textures and a typical Focus chord sequence that is both elegant and somewhat melancholic. "Moving Waves" is the only filler track on the album, bringing nothing more than 3 minutes of relax. "Focus II" is a smoking instrumental that even has a bit of fusion moments. "Eruption" is a highly acclaimed instrumental suite with a trademark classical prog intro followed by a famous guitar solo containing plenty of emotions. The following generic rock'n'roll jam is OK and each instrumentalist can shine. Then it gets incoherent until we reach the main motive again. At this moment, the band didn't know how to glue small elements into a good even suite but that would improve in the future. In any case, this is the first 4-star Focus album.