FOCUS II [AKA: MOVING WAVES]

The second album by Focus was "Moving waves" (aka "Focus II") and unlike "In and out of Focus", in this album, the band offered a much more original content; the songs are much more varied, only one of the six pieces have lyrics while the other five are instrumental and also, the incursion of the new members Cyril Havermans (bass) and Pierre Van Der Linden (drums) had something to do with the new style of the band.

"Hocus Pocus" is probably the most known song in the entire discography of Focus, this six-minute aggressive rock intro opens this multifaceted album, the drums, guitar, and bass are extremely powerful while Thijs Van Leer made an excellent job on flute and organ and, of course, what was the characteristic detail of this song is the maniac yodeling. "Le clochard" is a two-minute acoustic guitar piece that calms the mood a lot and opens the gate to what is probably the most beautiful piece in the record: the beautiful "Janis" in which Thijs Van Leer played an exquisite flute line during the three minutes the song lasts (once I read that the song was a tribute to Janis Joplin but I don't know how much of that is true and how much is an urban legend).

"Moving Waves" is the only song with lyrics on the album which has a soft and calm piano arrangement and opens the gate to the next song "Focus II", which is very different from "Focus" (from the debut album): it is shorter and more precise. The B-side of the album is the 23-minute suite "Eruption" which is divided into several recognizably semi-independent segments but works great as a whole piece, a very diverse one.

SONG RATING: Hocus Pocus, 5 Le clochard, 4 Janis, 5 Moving Waves, 4 Focus II, 5 Eruption, 5

AVERAGE: 4.67

PERCENTAGE: 93.33

ALBUM RATING: 5 stars

I ranked this album #80 on my TOP 100 favorite Progressive Rock albums of all time.

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