Focus: Focus II/Moving Waves (1971)

In 1970, Focus released their debut album, In & Out of Focus. It was basically an album that showed promise, which would be fully realized on following albums (think of In & Out of Focus like Trespass by Genesis or the first two albums from Yes). It was by far their most vocal dominated album, but the band quickly learned that vocals were not their high point. The band then witnessed a lineup change, out goes Hans Cleuver and Martin Dresden, and in comes ex-Brainbox drummer Pierre van der Linden, and bassist Cyril Haversman. In 1971 they recorded and released the album Moving Waves, although the album was known in Holland as Focus II (with a totally different cover), and in that country, the title Moving Waves was a 1973 double compilation album, to confuse matters. Here, most of the vocals have been dropped, emphasizing instrumental cuts.

The album starts off with “Hocus Pocus”. This song was simply thought of as a joke by the band, so they didn’t think it was going to be a hit. But in the States, the song hit big in 1973 (by which point they already had another album under their belt, Focus 3). This song then became an albatross around the band’s neck, and now they were forced to play that song, like it or not. Regardless, I really think this is truly a classic: who’d thought heavy metal and yodeling would work so well? It does here! And I really like that organ work and that wild heavy metal guitar playing. It’s too bad this song had since been relegated to “one hit wonder” status (the song was featured on the ’70s Have a Nice Day CD compilation, which consisted mainly of really awful AM hits of the day, like “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” and “Seasons in the Sun”), giving the band no justice (although you have to bear in mind, the band did have another hit with “Sylvia”, but was nowhere as big as “Hocus Pocus”). The rest of the first half of the album is more the typical Focus sound that the band usually did. “Le Clochard” was a piece played by Jan Akkerman on classical guitar, with some nice Mellotron in the background. “Janis” is dominated by Thijs van Leer’s flute playing. The title track is the only cut on the album with actual singing, a nice piano-dominated piece. “Focus II” shows Jan Akkerman’s electric guitar playing. There’s some Mellotron in the background. I really think the album’s crowning glory is the side-length “Eruption”. I really love how this piece starts off mellow, with organ from Thijs van Leer and electric guitar from Akkerman, but halfway through, the band really gets intense with some incredible guitar and organ solos. I really got a kick off this short passage where Jan Akkerman stole a Led Zeppelin riff (that is from “Whole Lotta Love”). I really love that grand Mellotron passage and that drum solo from Pierre van der Linden. This is that album where the band knew not to be excessive with their soloing (my complaint about their following album, Focus 3, was they went a bit too far on guitar and drum solos, “Anonymous II” was especially guilty). I really love that piano theme that closes this piece. This album is truly a classic, in my opinion, one of the finest from Holland I’ve heard.