FOCUS II [AKA: MOVING WAVES]

This was the first FOCUS album I heard. Sadly I haven't heard many others, actually only the The Best Of compilation (which really isn't true to its name!) and Focus 3, which is often regarded as their best work. I'd say Moving Waves is better; it's enjoyable all the way through whereas Focus 3 has some irritating moments in its hour+ length.

This second album kicks off with their best-known rocker, 'Hocus Pocus', with the fiery guitar riff and Thijs van Leer's yodling and the sequence of bizarre nonsense singing. All crazy but it makes one happy somehow. Luckily the rest of the album is not as rocking but concentrates on the calmer and more beautiful side of this band. Jan Akkerman shines on acoustic guitar and Thijs on flute. The title track is an ethereal piano ballad, very artistic and could easily be put in the art music genre.

Original second side of the vinyl is one long instrumental epic (some wordless background humming is included). Subtitles reveal some sort of narrative about Orfeus and Euridice. One could see how there are certain motifs for each character that are repeated over the 23 minutes' length, but without knowing the myth the narrative level remains distant to the listener, I'm afraid. That naturally doesn't make it any harder to enjoy the music as pure music.

I'm giving this full rating because it's very rare for me to enjoy an album sincerely from the first second to the last.