3

By the third studio album Focus reaching their apex. A double vinyl, this came with a different sleeve (much nicer) mostly black with a cutout of their faces arranged in a square figure. Bert Ruiter is now at bass and the classic line-up is now complete. all of them will show their prowess throughout the four sides of music.

Side 1 starts with some rearranged classical themes but the highlight is another gigantic hit was Sylvia (although a bit too similar to House Of the King IMHO) but Gossip is also fine. Side 2 starts with yet another reworking of the main eponymous theme before plunging into a suite reminding me of Eruption on the previous album but more eventful.

Side 3 is their magnum opus although this 20+ min version of Anonymous can seem long to some (6 min drum solo plus 3 min bass solo - this does pick-up as it reaches 100 MPH at the end) the rest is almost faultless. Side 4 concludes the Anonymous theme and has a short but delightfull elspeth of Nottingham where Jan Akkerman shows that he can also play the luthe quite well. Another rendition of their first hit HOTK ends the album.

Although I find focus always diluted a bit too much the ideas they had, stretching out some solos, reworking their themes, and here they pushed it to the maximum, this is IMHO their second best album after Hamburger Concerto.