For The Record: "We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic" by Foxygen

Foxygen’s new release We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic is an album like you’ve never heard before in that, one way or another, it sounds like everything you’ve ever heard before. These two 20-something-year-olds hailing from the comfy suburbs of northwestern Los Angeles County are not shy in acknowledging their love for and inspiration from the pop and rock gods of the ’60s and ’70s, yet they fuse their vast array of cited influences together into nine refreshing and addictive tracks to produce an incredibly solid record. After a quick yet highly gratifying 36 minutes and 39 seconds, you’ll understand the baby-boomer mantra that their own generation-defining music is better than ours.

After only a few minutes into the album, it is clear that trying to pinpoint their style is – putting it mildly – an ambitious task. Their label, Jagjaguwar (who also represents Midd graduate Kid Millions’ band, Oneida) compares their California-psychedelic sound to something along the lines of  tripped-out Kinks trying to out-do their magnum opus Arthur. Such a description, however, falls flat and certainly doesn’t explain how they can emulate Velvet Underground-era Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and (strangely) the Apples in Stereo in “No Destruction,” all at once. And yet, Foxygen is still able to bring out unpredictable tracks like “Shuggie,” incorporating elements of steady hip-hop-meets-jazz-funk-fusion interludes and a piano-driven Rolling Stones-esque chorus and then close with a Sgt. Pepper’s sing-along fade out, all the while without sounding cheap and gimmicky.

Foxygen’s broad, diverse instrumentation coupled with a seamless integration of classic and contemporary arrangements provides a much-needed change of pace from the overly-hyped dream pop that has dominated the indie blogosphere for the past couple of years.

Certainly, they owe credit to producer Richard Swift for their evolution from the mere lo-fi homages in their debut EP Take the Kids Off Broadway to the more clean and cohesive quality of We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, but these guys deserve praise and respect in their own right.

It is pretty surprising for musicians as old as our graduating seniors to succeed in creating something as bold and exciting as this.
What I love best about this album is that, at the root of it all, they’re just two kids having a blast playing catchy tunes with lyrics as whimsical and grand as the world they imagine before them. That is not to say they ignore the important stuff — for instance, “On Blue Mountain” kicks off with a crooning loneliness before the drums, guitar and organ layer into a quick-tempo anthem for wayward youth trying to make sense of it all; singer Sam France assures us that “On Blue Mountain, God will save you.”

But you know they have a pure love for what they do when they can throw in lines about green soup, roller skates and orange slugs on purple grass to provide some comic relief between moments of confusion and heartbreak. It isn’t very often that you hear a song as good as “San Francisco” that seriously incorporates a xylophone as the main instrument.

Simply put, this album is a ton of fun even after the fifth, sixth and seventh listen. If you experienced that seemingly obligatory classic rock phase in middle school like I did, then the nostalgia will hit you hard.

If for some reason you missed it, then We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic is your chance to relive musical history.