Foxygen returns with a new album that is one part 60s, one part mad hatter
Although Foxygen seem like a bunch of kids who enjoy MDMA and smoke pot a little too much, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic is a healthy mixture of the music that spawned from classic 60s and 70s stars — vocalists like Jagger, Dylan, Bowie, and Lennon come to mind. Foxygen is delightfully wacky in cementing snippets of older sounds together into music without recycling them. It’s Ambassadors’s clean yet distinctly-still vintage sound that surpasses its fuzzier predecessor Take the Kids off Broadway, while pleasing both the hair-filled ears of a Beatles fanatic and those of the modern listener.
“San Francisco” begins with the cutesy tinkling of a xylophone and a flute. Accompanied by occasionally quirky lyrics (“Your eyes are like a cup of tea”) and sing-songy vocals, the tune adopts the theatricality of Alice in Wonderland’s mad tea party — on a lot of acid. The song’s music video is no less sober. It shifts between listless wandering in a forest and a pink-walled room containing a floral couch, coffee table, skulls, likely poisonous apples, and the two lollygagging members of Foxygen: Sam France and Johnathan Rado. Ambassadors’ lead single “Shuggie” is another stellar tune — it will trick you into expecting an experimental rock/ jazz trumpet number until it smoothly morphs into a chorus backed by a gospel choir and snazzy pianos. Here, the lyrics are nostalgic (“Hey man, have a soda / It’s on the house) — because, seriously, when is soda ever free these days?
The title track is unquestionably the album’s best — badass Elvis-esque guitar riffs and snippets of calm frame Sam France’s dynamic singing, which dissolves into a yowling mess of words that is nothing short of an absolute freak-out and a treat to witness in concert. Crazy album title and vocal meltdown notwithstanding — you’re probably dying to know what the hell a Foxygen is. According to Village Voice, France’s friend Libby touted a sixth grade crush as her “foxygen” in an AIM conversation with France. Putting all the sickeningly adorable puppy love aside, that nickname signaled the first glimmerings of the duo’s current success, including opening for Of Montreal, signing with Jagjaguwar Records, and writing their second release with The Shins’ keyboardist, Richard Swift.
Ambassadors is a solid throwback album that lives up to the indie blog hype surrounding it. If anything, Foxygen’s production is flawed in only one way: they could have perhaps picked a longer, more tongue-twisty album title. Keep it handy for a trip to your local record store or the homely little burger parlour that your uncle owns — it’ll put you right in the mood.
