HAMBURGER CONCERTO

Although many Focus fans swear by it, I can't say I find much to celebrate about Hamburger Concerto. Despite bringing in plenty of symphonic trimmings, several of the songs on this album are repetitive and unimaginative hard rock pieces at their core, and the title track adds nothing new to the already overpopulated prog subgenre of rock adaptations of classical music. The verve and energy present on Moving Waves is absent, and what's left behind is rather tired out and derivative, following the prog playbook whilst neither coming up with new tricks or breathing new vitality into old ones. Hardly the band's finest hour.