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Foxy Shazam

The Church Of Rock And Roll

Written by: TL on 20/02/2012 22:15:19

When last we heard from Fozy Shazam, the Cincinatti sixtet was using their third(!) album "Foxy Shazam" to rapidly outgrow the underground cult status they earned on their breakthrough sophomore (!!, I mistakingly oversaw that they have an album older than both of these in my last review. Sorry!) "Introducing". Whether you liked it or not, it was clear that Foxy Shazam were successfully stepping things up to a different level, and as is customary for bands that do just that, it's been begging the question "what are they going to do next?".

To answer that question we now have the recently released "The Church Of Rock And Roll", on which they work at refining the extremely theatrical and flamboyant approach taken on "Foxy Shazam", of course producing quite a few catchy choruses in the process. The band is continually venturing higher and higher over the top with their brazen glam rock, which sounds like a mix of Queen, Meat Loaf and The Darkness, with a healthy shot of cheeky humor in there to keep things from becoming too bombastic.

Hahaha, just kidding, the whole point of Foxy Shazam is to be too bomstastic, humor or no humor, as is clearly seen by the opening double-punch "I Like It" and "Holy Touch", which sports some of the most ear-catching choruses you'll likely hear this winter. I mean, tell me you can forget the first time you hear frontman Eric Nally singing "That's the biggest black ass I've ever seen and I like it! I LIKE IT!". Even having read about it before hearing it, it still caught me off guard and swept me off my feet in all its badassness.

While the last Foxy album was very disciplined in providing excellent hooks for well past half its run time, before loosening up a little and sending the listener off with a handful of slightly more experimental songs, "The Church Of Rock And Roll" takes a similar twist already at track five. Fortunately, "Forever Together" - a quiet song about missing your son while "being in a band - and rock'n'rollin'" - is initially full of warm charm in the way it's both fun, sweet and sincere at the same time.

Despite all the horns and pianos and solos and gospel choirs the band continually bring to bear however, and despite the relatively strong choruses of songs such as "Too Late Baby" and "I Wanna Be Yours" the record does gradually start to feel a little like Foxy are riding the same ideas as on their self-titled, except with songs that have sliiiightly weaker personalities. The bar set by the hell raising opening duo simply isn't quite met towards the end of the album, and effectively, it becomes a little hard to stay attentive. If you're a Foxy-fan, there's a chance you won't notice it, because the dip in freshness is only barely noticeable, but still, it makes this record appear to me as one that will merely add some solid songs to the band's setlist, while I think they have to somehow dig deeper if they want to keep their ball rolling on the next record.

Download: I Like It, Holy Touch, Forever Together, I Wanna Be Yours
For The Fans Of: Queen, Meat Loaf, The Darkness, fun.
Listen: facebook.com/FoxyShazam

Release Date 24.01.2012
Island Records