Review Summary: Huge instrumentation and eccentric vocals create a fun, enjoyable album
Foxygen are an American Indie Rock duo from Westlake Village, California. This is their fifth studio album released on Jagjaguwar records. The duo of Jonathan Rado and Sam France have never made the same album twice. They’ve never settled on one sound and this album is no different.
“Hang” brings in a full orchestra to accompany the band and the band goes in every direction imaginable with it. This album is extravagant, even ridiculous at times, but that’s part of its charm. The album plays out as if it were a broadway musical soundtrack. Strings, pianos, organs and horns, along with your usual rock instrumentation, create a huge sound that the band takes advantage of every single chance they get. There aren’t many moments on this record that are subdued or minimal. It contains a plethora of sounds at all times and while it can feel overwhelming at times, especially with some of the vocal performances here, it all somehow feels endearing. Jonathan and Sam feel like they’re having a ton of fun performing this album and that really shines through.
Take the song “Avalon” complete with it’s backup vocals, strings, horns and instrumental breaks, it could easily come off as cheesy or excessive. However, the duo does it with an insurmountable amount of energy that it is infectious. One of the best songs here for me is “Upon A Hill.” The song is only about a minute and a half long, but from Sam France’s eccentric but controlled vocals, to the groove the drums create early on, (it even has a tempo change about halfway through) it’s so much fun.
There are a few times here that the band does take it a tad too far and choose excess over interesting songwriting. “Trauma” is one of those moments for me, I felt it got a bit repetitive too quickly, though the outro is pretty epic. I also didn’t care for the closer “Rise Up” France’s vocal delivery on the verses as he yells Rise Up, was a little grating.
Overall, Hang is quite ridiculous at times, but it finds beauty and tons of fun through its excess. Hang is a big step forward from the band's previous album and I hope they keep this theatrical side with them, it suits them well.
