3

Focus

Symphonic Prog

3.83 | 572 ratings

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the philosopher

The Magnus Opus of Focus.

Focus keeps on growing. Moving Waves (or Focus II) was already very good, but this third record is even more magical. The songwriting is even more intellectual and because Focus III contains two records Focus had the possibility to record extended jams of each member. The first record contains new material and the second can be seen as a bonus record, containing almost no new material, but old material of their first record, but now with long jams on it.

Round goes the Gossip is another perfect openingtrack of Focus. This song is highly intellectual and has a brilliant instrumental jazzrock bridge with nice interaction of Thijs van Leer on keys and Jan Akkerman on guitar. The second song is really mystical with the flute as maininstrument (also played by Thijs van Leer). The third song is guitarbased and the fourth song is pianobased. I hope you can imagine the variaty on only the first side! The guitartrack Sylvia is somewhat special to me. My wife's name is Sylvia and she could not be honored more then by this great song with nice melodies. The ending atmosphere of side I is great: a phantasy landscape created by high pitch flutes, bass lines, optimistic guitarmelodies and organs.

The second side of Focus III contains two longer compositions with typical Focus-like progression. Dynamic, great melodies and solo's! The second record does have some great jams, but I do admit I don't listen to it as often as the first record. As I said before I consider it as bonusmaterial and as such it is a great addition. For fans of the guitarjamming of Jan Akkerman I'll advise to listen also to his solowork Profile.

In my opinion Focus is here at it's peak. This is their magnus opus. 4,5 stars!

the philosopher | 4/5 | 2012-3-12

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