MASTERS OF ROCK 1971 - 1973

Focus is a Dutch progressive rock band formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by keyboardist, vocalist, and flautist Thijs van Leer, drummer Hans Cleuver, bassist Martijn Dresden, and guitarist Jan Akkerman. Their debut album "Focus Plays Focus" released in 1970 gained little attention but the follow-up, "Moving Waves" released in 1971, earned the band's international recognition. Their success continued with "Focus 3" released in 1972 and "Hamburger Concerto" released in 1974. Focus remains as one of the most successful and influential progressive rock bands from the Netherlands.

"Masters Of Rock 1971 - 1973" is a compilation album of Focus. This is one of the several compilation albums released by the band during the career of the band and during the 70's. "Greatest Hits Of Focus" has tracks that belong to that musical period of Focus and that includes tracks from their first three studio albums, "Focus Plays Focus" aka "In And Out Of Focus", "Focus II" aka "Moving Waves" and "Focus 3". That means that we are talking about tracks that belong to some of their best studio albums. We are talking about albums that belong to their best and most progressive phase.

"Masters Of Rock 1971 ? 1973" was released in 1974 and has nine tracks. "Hocus Pocus" is from "Moving Waves". This is an extraordinary track, a legendary track from the band with intensity perfectly astonishing and, at the same time, we may also say that it has some beautiful insanity on it. It's a track that soon we heard it, soon we sing it, and that, in the end, we remain completely free from all the tensions and stress after a day's work. This always was one of my favorite progressive tracks from the band. "Love Remembered" is from "Focus 3". It's a simple short and beautiful song. It's a relaxing song with a soft tune and a nice pastoral and bucolic melody. Basically, it's a song with acoustic guitar, flute and keyboards and with bass and drums in the back. Instead of the usual aggressive style of the flute of Thijs Van Leer, it goes for a delicate and melancholic melody. This is an incredibly beautiful and melancholic song. "Tommy" is from "Moving Waves". This is only a small excerpt of their multi-part suite "Eruption", which is divided into many several parts. "Eruption" is a real progressive masterpiece with some great organ sounds, tons on drums, very melodic bass and straightforward hard rock electric guitars. There are some intensely floating Mellotron and some nice backing vocal parts. "Tommy" is probably the most known song, an excerpt, a logical choice for a single. "Elspeth Of Nottingham" is from "Focus 3". It's a very beautiful medieval madrigal well performed by classical guitar and flute. I always loved the medieval music, and so, this song is a blessing for my senses. This is another great track with great high quality. This is something very adequate, because this travel in this music with lute and piccolo prepares us to a true trip in time. "House Of The King" is from "In And Out Of Focus". This is a legendary track from the band. It shows the usual great compositional abilities of Jan Akkerman and the harmony between the flute of Thijs van Leer and the acoustic guitar of Jan Akkerman. Despite be a short track, it's very exciting and a refreshing moment. It's a classic from Focus where we can see compositional mastery, creative experimentalism and instrumental virtuosity. "Sylvia" is another track from "Focus 3". It's another classic of Focus. It's a melodic song conducted by the electric guitar of Jan Akkerman and with great performances by all other band's members, in the supporting role. It's basically a flurry of sounds all meticulously connected. It's a memorable catchy song with an emotive melody where all song are built around it. "Focus II" is from "Moving Waves". It's an interesting and melodic piece dominated by the guitar of Jan Akkerman. This is a song that continues the Focus' series, with good song writing and a great musical performance by all band's members, as usual. It has a fantastic interplay between all band's members. This is one of the best examples of their unusual style. "Round Goes The Gossip" is from "Focus 3". This is a well humoured song with a curious and strange consecutive repetition of the title song, by Thijs van Leer, as if it was a lyric. It's catchy, a kind of a jazz-fusion song with nice instrumentation. This is really a vibrant track very versatile that just only can be described as progressive rock at its best. "Focus III" is also from "Focus 3". It continues the Focus series, with excellent song writing and a great performance by all band's members, as is usual with Focus. Like the other Focus' themes, it's a great piece, gentle, symphonic and emotional. It's pleasant and amusing. It has such beautiful and pastoral sound, really, a truly incredibly and beautiful song, indeed.

Conclusion: "Masters Of Rock 1971 - 1973" is, without any doubt, a good compilation album from Focus. At the time when it was released, and as its name indicates, Focus had only released three studio albums, "In And Out Of Focus", "Moving Waves" and "Focus 3". And as we know, these three studio albums belong to what is considered their golden classic years, with their follow-up "Hamburger Concerto". Thus, many of their best, most known and classic tracks are present here, such as, "Hocus Pocus", "Tommy", "House Of The King", "Sylvia" and two tracks that belong to their legendary Focus' series, "Focus II" and "Focus III". So, this is good compilation covering some of their best material.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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