3

With the release of the bands third album in 1972, Focus accomplishes a massive achievement for symphonic progressive rock with a double LP that reveals the real musical potential of the band. The music that radiates from this work of art speaks loudly, incorporating a wide selection elements within itself that make it impossible to pinpoint the brilliance of the music to one single aspect. would seem impossible to believe that 4 musicians with ordinary rock instruments could produce such richly textured music. With these ordinary instruments they manage to compose music that, when listened to briefly, causes no deep impressions. However, if listened to attentively, it is possible to extract a wonderful mixture of talent, creativity and spontaneity.

For this album, the band eliminates lyrics completely, allowing themselves to focus on instrumental elaborations, and long, colorful jams. The lyrics, as in most cases, change a songs dynamics, given that they cover up the instruments, attracting a spotlight to the words that forces the instruments into second hand. Without the limitation of lyrics, the music was set free in a sense. But it is not solely the absence of lyrics that makes this album deserve attention . This so called musical freedom allows underlying aspects to rise above ground into the deserved spotlight, unleashing all the instrumental power that the band could muster into a beautiful symphony that transpires loads of musical feeling, exploring a variety of musical universes and emotions. Another fundamental thing that must be spoken of when this LP is mentioned, is how well the musicians are tuned in with each others wavelengths. It feels as if they were all aiming for the same musical target, and with the clear skill and dedication that each composer possesses they easily hit the bulls-eye. For each fragment of each track, the instruments seem perfectly teamed up with each other to produce those heroic, happy, catchy, beautiful and wonderfully harmonic, point and counterpoint melodies, that Focus is so famous for. This album demonstrates how they are skilled at capturing and transforming the abstract musical energy floating around their heads into a masterful sculpture.

Focus hit the right key on the organ for this album.