Foghat

Foghat – Foghat Live (1977/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:19 minutes | 1,55 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino

Although they had scored some success on the album charts (Fool for the City being their biggest success), Foghat had always won the majority of their fans through their high-intensity live shows. Thus, when live albums became a salable rock music commodity in the wake of megahits like Kiss Alive and Frampton Comes Alive, it was only natural that Foghat would release a live recording. Live wisely restricts the running time to a single album (two album’s worth of Foghat’s boogie rock, no matter how energetic, would probably have been too much), resulting in a tight set that flows effortlessly and showcases the group’s strengths in the best possible light. Everything is delivered with an energy and intensity that would be impossible to capture in a studio: good examples are “Honey Hush,” a frantic hard rock blitz delivered at twice the speed of the studio version, and “Home in My Hand,” a stomping anthem whose live version adds an a cappella break that allows the group to show off some impressive vocal harmonies as they get the crowd fired up. Elsewhere, the group transforms hits like “Slow Ride” and “I Just Wanna Make Love to You” into guitar-fueled epics that allow the group to show off its mastery of hard rock’s sonic pyrotechnics. The end result is one of Foghat’s finest albums because it cherry picks all the highlights of the band’s catalog to that point and captures the band in its most natural and comfortable setting (i.e., in front of a group of adoring fans). These qualities make Live a gem of 1970s hard rock and a necessity for anyone who wants to understand the appeal of Foghat.

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Foghat – Fool For The City (Remastered) (1975/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:32 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Rock, Classic Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Rhino

Remastered 2016. After building a solid core audience through relentless touring and a string of hard-rocking albums, Foghat finally hit the big time in 1975 with Fool for the City. It still stands out as the best album in the group’s catalog because it matched their road-tested abilities as hard rockers to a consistent set of tunes that were both well-crafted and ambitious. The tone for the album is set by its title track: This hard-rocking gem not only pairs riff-driven verses with an effective shout-along chorus, but also throws in a few surprising moments where the guitars are taken out of the mix completely and Nick Jameson’s bass is allowed to take the lead in a funky breakdown. Fool for the City also produced an enduring rock radio favorite in “Slow Ride,” a stomping rock tune that transcends the inherent clichés of its “love is like a car ride” lyrics with a furious performance from the band and a clever arrangement that works in well-timed automotive sound effects during the verses and plays up the band’s ability to work an R&B-styled groove into their hard-rocking sound (again, note the thumping bassline from Jameson). Further radio play was earned with “Take It or Leave It,” an acoustic-based ballad that worked synthesizers into its subtle yet carefully layered arrangement to become one of the group’s finest slow numbers. The album’s other songs don’t stand like the aforementioned selections, but they all flow together nicely thanks to a consistently inspired performance from the band and clever little arrangement frills that keep the group’s boogie-oriented rock fresh (example: the witty spoken word bit at the end of “Drive Me Home”). All in all, Fool for the City is both Foghat’s finest achievement in the studio and one of the high points of 1970s hard rock. ~ Donald A. Guarisco, Rovi

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