It used to sound like they were in on the joke of how ridiculous their music was, but now they just sound like an ambitious, underfunded garage band. Any band would be hard pressed trying to get away with a lyric like “ Dancing with my demons/Trying to conceal my boner, but Foxy Shazam could have been the ones to make it work. Even more frustrating is the fact that you can hear the pieces of the band’s grandiose modus operandi somewhere in there, but that sound will never work with this production job. There are no dynamics and no energy, which were the two things that made Foxy Shazam work. The mixing is muddy, Eric Nally's (typically stunning) vocals are compressed, and every individual instrument sounds like it was recorded on an iPhone and then simply layered. FOXY SHAZAM PROFESSIONALThey've started their own record label and, while I don’t begrudge any band for taking their money into their own hands, the production on The Heart Behead You is among the worst I’ve heard on a professional album. Unfortunately, with their newest release, Foxy Shazam have become awkward and uncomfortable to listen to. Taking their queue from contemporaries like at the Drive-in, Gogol Bordello, Man Man and others in the modern piano-driven punk era, Foxy Shazam construct a formula of chaotic and disjointed, convulsive punk rock, complete with apocalyptic lyrics and doom-ridden instrumentation, seemingly rising and intoxicating like vapors from a cryptic, acid-laden party in hell. In the hands of another band that didn’t toe that line as well, what they attempted could be awkward and uncomfortable to listen to. The band was unhinged yet still polished, with the absurd lyrics a part of their modernized throwback arena rock package. The magic of Foxy Shazam is that they were able to make lyrics like “Life is a bitch, but she’s totally do-able” fun and playful and so totally sing-a-long-able, all contained within over-the-top, theatrical songs. Review Summary: No boner to conceal here.
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