There was a time when I thought Foxygen was going to be my new favourite band. In 2013 I was looking for new music to hear and stumbled upon the Best New Music review for the duo’s Peace & Magic album. The logical thing to do was to listen to it, after reading the review it seemed like a good idea. And it started off well. Opener ‘In the Darkness’ had a nice invitational tone, the lead singer had this sigh-like delivery to his vocals, and the melodies were all on point. But it was only two minutes long. You could say that things properly get underway with the following track “No Destruction”, also released as the album’s third single.

And really it’s more of the same. The track flows at a much slower pace, but is led by these pleasant piano chords, a steady rhythm and possesses more of a country-rock sound. Vocalist Sam France continues his sigh-like approach to his vocal delivery, singing about forgetting someone who he used to be quite close with, seeing them with a new partner sometime down the line, and proceeding to shut them out of his life completely because they were never that great in the first place. He perceived their behaviour to be destructive, and now that they’re gone there’s no destruction. Everything’s at peace. Overall, the music has a great relaxed feel to it. One of those tracks that suit those moments where you’re looking out the window and watching the scene fly by. There is a moment when France pulls out his best Mick Jagger impression, watch out for that, it’s almost uncanny. And I think a big nod has to go to Richard Swift who produced the album and provided a lot of the instrumentation on it. He passed away in 2018. The whole record wouldn’t sound the same if not for him.

“So why didn’t Foxygen become your new favourite band,” I think you’re all asking. The answer is, I just didn’t feel so strongly about ’em. They released ‘How Can You Really’ in 2014, the comeback single to promote what was to be their new album. Thought it was okay, but that was about it. Then that new album turned out to be a double album. If I wasn’t that excited about the lead single, I probably wasn’t going to listen to 82 minutes of additional material. And so, the support faded away. Still think Peace & Magic is a good time.