Album title: Focus Plays Focus or
In and Out of Focus
Artist: Focus
Nationality: Dutch
Label: Imperial
Chronology: Debut
Grade: A
Previous Experience of this Artist: One other album and Brainbox
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Landmark value:
Tracklisting: Focus (vocal)/Black Beauty/Sugar Island/Anonymous/House of the King/Happy Nightmare - Mescaline/Why Dream/Focus (instrumental)
Comments: Focus are a band I know very little about. I’ve reviewed the album by their original band, Brainbox (at least, the one which numbered Thijs Van Leer and Jan Akkerman among its personnel) and years ago I also wrote a review on one of their more recent albums, but that’s about it. I know they’re big in the prog scene, and being at the time one of the few prog bands outside of the UK they were considered something of an anomaly, but grew to be very popular and are still going today.
Note: As I may have mentioned earlier, the album was originally called
Focus Plays Focus but when it became successful on the back of the single “The House of the King” it was re-released for the international market in 1971, and for some reason retitled as “In and Out of Focus.” Don’t ask me. Also, the Spotify copy appears to have the track listing in reverse, so to save hassle that’s how I’m going to review it. If you’re familiar with the album my apologies, but there’s no way I’m clicking each track as I play the album so that they’re in the right order.
That means we start off with “Focus (vocal)”, which is a soft little organ-led piece, extremely reminiscent of the Alan Parsons Project, by which I mean of course they must have taken inspiration from Focus. Played blind, I might have thought this was the APP. Oddly, it seems to consist of one sung line, right at the start, and then a sort of staggered motif repeating on the organ against Akkerman’s lush guitar work, which basically makes it more or less an instrumental as far as I can see. Very nice start though, and on into “Black Beauty”, which I’m going to assume is not about Anna Sewell’s famous horse. Much more of a punch to this one, sharp guitar and rolling percussion, sounds like the sort of thing The Flower Kings would do later on. A certain Beatles feel here, with elements of the Moody Blues too. There’s a lot of simple fun about “Sugar Island”, a much more stripped-down sort of song with a nice Hammond line. Oddly enough, the song seems to be a poke at Cuban leader the late Fidel Castro. Hum.
I like the way the flute is used here - Jethro Tull take note, though probably not. No complaints so far. “Anonymous” has an interesting trumpet intro and then a flute solo before it engages in a duel with the guitar (I kid you not), with the piano joining in in a very jazzy way. Though this is over six and a half minutes I’m going to stick my neck out and say it’s an instrumental. And my neck is safe, because that’s exactly what it is. In addition, it’s a hell of a vehicle for Jan Akkerman to show just why he’s so respected as a guitarist. Oh, there’s a drum solo too. I’m not too upset about that, though in fairness, did it need one? That big hit single is up next, and I must admit, I’ve never heard “The House of the King”, but oh look, it’s an instrumental too.
Quite short, at less than three minutes, apparently it became famous as the theme to various TV shows, but again it’s not familiar to these ears. Has a sort of almost flamenco feel to it, seems to me. Good work on the flute there, Thijs! Catchy, for sure, and for an instrumental to get into the charts it usually has to have something different, which this does. “Happy Nightmare” (shown on the Spotify as having the subtitle “Mescaline”) is a final return to vocals, slow and kind of medieval in its format at first, before breaking into a mid-paced breezy sort of half-soul idea. Nice vocal harmonies. It would seem, on the basis of this album at least, that Focus are a little more of a relaxed band, or were, as “Why Dream” is another, well, dreamy ballad riding on waves of Hammond and some sweet guitar, and none the worse for it either. Things close then on the opening track (or open on the closing track, whichever version you have I guess) with “Focus (instrumental)” - which can’t be that much different from “Focus (vocal)”, right? Well, not, not right, as this runs for nearly ten minutes. And it’s worth every one of them.
Favourite track(s): everything
Least favourite track(s):
Overall impression: A great debut, lots of excellent musicianship, and it’s nice to see a band not just going head-down on their first time out, but taking it easy and relaxed as they look on the album cover.
Personal Rating: 
Legacy Rating: 
Final Rating: