MOTHER FOCUS

"Mother Focus" is the fifth studio album of the Dutch progressive rock band Focus and was released in 1975. Again and as happened before, Focus suffered another change into their line up. Their previous drummer Colin Allen left the band. He had only participated on their previous fourth studio album "Hamburger Concerto" and he only participated on one track of this album, "I Need A Bathroom". He was replaced by David Kemper, who participated on the rest of the album.

"Mother Focus" is the last album of Focus to feature the two main protagonists in the band, which are also the last two founding members of the group, Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman. Jan Akkerman left the band in 1976, frustrated with the lack of musical direction in Focus and the constraints to have to work with the band's more commercial ambitious.

So, the line up on the album is Thijs van Leer (vocals, keyboards and flute), Jan Akkerman (guitar), Bert Ruiter (bass guitar), Collin Allen (drums) and David Kemper (drums).

"Mother Focus" has twelve tracks. The first track is the title track "Mother Focus". It was written by Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman and Bert Ruiter. The title track is a very good and interesting song, and I disagree with many of you, because I really think that it has many of the main characteristics of the band's songs. It's a song with a groovy and jazz moody very pleasant to hear and represents one of the highest musical moments on the album. The second track "I Need A Bathroom" written by Bert Ruiter, represents, without any doubt, the weakest and worst musical moment on the album. It's a funky track without any progressive musical lines, very repetitive and without great originality. This is a song with nothing to do with Focus' music. The third track "Bennie Helder" written by Thijs van Leer represents, for me, the best musical moment on the album. This is another great song of the band where the main musical characteristics of the group are present. It's a song very well constructed, with nice musical performances, and with a touch of the medieval music. The fourth track "Soft Vanilla" written by Bert Ruiter isn't as poor as "I Need A Bathroom", but represents another weak point on the album. It's a straightforward soft piece of jazz very repetitive and also without great creativity and imagination. This is another song without any kind of links with the traditional music of Focus. The fifth track "Hard Vanilla" written by Bert Ruiter represents the continuity of the previous song, but this time with the funky rhythm of "I Need A Bathroom". It's another weak point on the album and, once more, we can't see any connection with the creativity and the originality of the Focus' music. The sixth track "Tropical Bird" written by Bert Ruiter is the last song composed by Bert Ruiter for the album and is, in my opinion, better and more pleasant to hear than the other three. It's a nice, mellow and relaxing song that we can hear in any bar when we have a drink and we eat something with friends. The seventh track "Focus IV" written by Thijs van Leer isn't too bad as some of you say, and despite be less good as the other tracks on the Focus' series, doesn't embarrass them. Anyway, I even dare to say that it has almost the same quality of the previous tracks of that serie. Still, it's too short to be a great track and it's less inspired too. The eighth track "Someone's Cry?What?" written Jan Akkerman is a very pleasant song with nice guitar moments. It's a calm and relaxing song with some interesting musical moments that reminds us, sometimes, the other side of Focus, their most melodic side. The ninth track "All Together?Oh, That" written by Jan Akkerman is a kind of the second part of the previous song. However, it's a very different song. This time it's more focused on the country music. It's also a nice and pleasant song to hear, but, as with the previous song, it's far way from be one of the best Jan Akkerman's contributions to the group. The tenth track "No Hang Ups" written by Paul Stoppelman is another nice and pleasant song with good guitar and keyboard works, performed by Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman. It's probably one the songs where the duo better played together on the album. The eleventh track "My Sweetheart" written by Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman is an enjoyable song to hear, but it's also one of the weakest songs composed by this duo of composers in Focus. It's a light pop musical number, without great imagination and with nothing special to remember, really. The twelfth track "Father Bach" written by Thijs van Leer, as the name says, it's an arrangement of a classical Bach's piece arranged by Thijs van Leer. It's a very short and beautiful track and, as we expected, it ends the album in a perfect and pleasant way.

Conclusion: I own a vinyl copy of this album since it was released. "Mother Focus" was my only studio album from the band for many years. It was with "Live At The Rainbow" the two only albums of Focus that I purchased during those years. So, I don't know if was by that reason, but I always liked it. It's true that it's a true deception compared with their four previous studio albums, especially compared with "Hamburger Concerto". It's ltrue it has really some several weak tracks, especially the tracks composed by Bert Ruiter, but it's also true that it has some very good musical moments too, especially "Bennie Helder" and "Mother Focus". So, mainly due to that, I think it deserves to be rated with 3 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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