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Focus - Focus Plays Focus [Aka: In and Out of Focus] CD (album) cover

FOCUS PLAYS FOCUS [AKA: IN AND OUT OF FOCUS]

Focus

 

Symphonic Prog

3.47 | 352 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

UMUR
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
3 stars In and Out of Focus is the debut album dutch prog rockers Focus. Unlike a large portion of their later output, most of the songs here on the debut evolves around vocals. Focus is probably the most known Dutch prog rock band and they have made a couple of good albums in their career. This one is a typical debut album which means that Focus is still undecided when it comes to musical style.

The music is symphonic prog rock and in the vocal department I hear a lot of Beatles and to some extent Canterbury scene. This is my enterpretation so you should check this out yourself to make your own opinion. Thijs van Leer has a very pleasant voice and his subtle vocal style also reminds me of Camel. The three first songs are vocal tracks that are somewhat enjoyable while itīs with the fourth song Anonymous that we begin to see the real face of Focus. This is a good instrumental song with a nice flute solo, a soft jazzy piano solo, a bass solo and a guitar solo. House of the king is a short flute driven song which reminds me a bit about Jethro Tull.

Happy nightmare (mescaline) starts side 2 of the original LP and itīs one of my favorites here. Great vocal melody and a bit of eerie atmosphere. Why Dream is a pretty dark song which I also like a lot. The album ends with Focus ( Instrumental) which is an almost 10 minutes long instrumental track with lots of soloing. I like Anonymous better but itīs allright.

The musicianship is pretty good and itīs already showing on In and Out of Focus that Jan Akkerman on guitar and Thijs van Leer on vocals, Flute and keyboards are excellent musicians.

The production is a bit thin but itīs still enjoyable.

Allthough I have never been the biggets fan of Focus this debut is a pretty good album and I īll rate it 3 stars. I like that there are more songs with vocals to keep the album diverse than usually on a Focus album. Some of the vocal tracks are still very much rooted in the sixties but they are still very good.

UMUR | 3/5 |

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