Review Summary: On Mother Focus, Focus begin to lose their focus on what is excellent music.
One of the growing trends of progressive rock in the 70s seemed to affect various bands of the genre, where a successful triumvirate of albums was released across the decade. Rush had
2112,
A Farewell to Kings and
Hemispheres. Pink Floyd had
Dark Side of the Moon,
Wish You were Here and
Animals. Focus had
Moving Waves,
Focus III and
Hamburger Concerto. However, whereas the first two of these bands went on to create albums which had a more commercial success, Focus seemed to fall into a musical identity crisis. And 1975's
Mother Focus proves this more than anything else, probably as a result of just how outstanding its predecessor was.
If there was one adjective which could be used to describe Focus' fifth effort, it would be "steady". Steady, not in the sense that Focus were trying to tone all the excitement and intensity of previous albums down, but in the sense that they were already trying to creep away from the progressive rock tag. And who could blame them? Maybe all the madness and bizarre musicianship of yore had finally caught up with the band's innovation, and so
Mother Focus is unfortunately tame as a result. The musicianship for the most part is gentle and pleasant, for want of a better word. Everything here seems to be very laidback, very calm, almost as if Focus attempted to make their own version of the lackluster elevator music people hear on a daily basis. This isn't a terrible thing, of course. Songs like the vibrant, slightly funky "Bennie Helder" and the spacey "All Together...Oh That!" both prove much more enchanting and entertaining than, say, the opening title track or its somewhat monotonous "I Need a Bathroom", and few would argue that the upbeat vibes of "Hard Vanilla" are anything but invigorating.
Yet as consistent and adventurous as these aforementioned tunes may be, nothing ever quite emerges outside of its comfort zone, and the same can be said for each member of the band, particularly their musical input more than anything else. Whilst the lack of vocals would make one think that the instrumentation here is top-notch, it simply isn't. Save for the aforementioned songs, nothing ever really explodes out of the stereo.
Mother Focus runs at thirty-seven minutes across a twelve-song playlist, and no song ever exceeds the near four-minute mark. Quite a jump, one would think, from the majestic title track of
Hamburger Concerto then, but if anything, this just goes to show that Focus really did have both a musical and structural change of direction than, perhaps, their peers. The only song here which utilizes vocals-The slow-moving, slightly lackluster "I Need a Bathroom"-doesn't even begin to explore its musical surroundings. Maybe it's how the vocal delivery drags, or how uninspired the lyrical content is, but this song is one of quite a few to prove that Focus, even in 1975, were beginning to lose their touch. The same problems affect "Tropical Bird" and "Focus IV", where the former seems to be influenced by easy listening elevator music and the latter doesn't live up to the self-titled anthems of previous albums.
Mother Focus represents a change of pace and direction more than anything else, but in quite an average way, especially by Focus' standards. Whilst each of the twelve songs here are more or less pleasant, gentle pieces of music to nod one's head to, as a collaborative effort, it simply produces an inconsistent, slightly unmemorable affair. The instrumentation here, in its own right, is ideal, but the main problem is that Focus, as a band, didn't seem all that inspired. That said, it's certainly an album for the collectors and long-time fans.
