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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Hilarious in some respects when considered in the light of their later work, the first Focus album still stands up fresh and keen as a example of late 60s psychedelic Europop, with bits reminiscent of Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd, Procul Harem, the Moody Blues – even the BeeGees. Not surprisingly, it’s the instrumental tracks that grab the attention: Anonymous, with its bright little opening jig and crunching riff, later to be extended and accelerated into the mammoth Focus 3 version, is already a splendid noise, and the brief solos from each band member include a rare van Leer piano excursion; House of the King, familiar to most of us from the Focus 3 vinyl LP but here in its proper context, is an Ivanhoe-galloping-through-the-forest flute and acoustic guitar rush; and the concluding Focus gives us the first taste of what will become a series of lyrical van Leer-composed tunes highlighting Akkerman’s supple, singing guitar lines – though it then develops into a Velvet Undergroundish chugging riff with some lovely van Leer flute embellishments. Akkerman, in fact, is the shrinking violet here, with little sign of the exceptional composer and musician he would later become. The vocal tracks show that the group’s solid melodic gifts were already in place, as well as indicating why they decided to become almost completely instrumental – with those “nice” English accents it sounds rather like Neil Innes fronting the Bonzos at times. There’s a Dutch social awareness in the topics – racism, Cuba, drugs – and they’re all thoroughly pleasant songs. You probably wouldn’t want this disc unless you were already a Focus fan and wanted to see how they started off; on the other hand, it’s a delightful work in itself, with a sense of innocence, colour and experimentation that is hard to dislike.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Although alll the focus albums have been rehased to a point, I still thnk they are an exellent band and are great live.
This being their first album "in and out of focus" is a starting point for better things to come. Nevertheless it is a great debut album.
This being their first album "in and out of focus" is a starting point for better things to come. Nevertheless it is a great debut album.
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11 reviews
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A group at odds with their time
11 Jun 2004
Format:Audio CD
For the most part, Focus was a jazz duo consisting of Jan Akkerman on guitar and Thijs Van Leer on flute and keys. The rhythm section tended to vary from album to album, with Akkerman doing some of the bass himself. The prog i.d. was added by virtue of tracks like "Anonymous", which used the staple guitar and organ arrangements imitative of ELP, bracketed fore and aft by a Renaissance woodwind theme. A much later 1980s Mercury release called "Focus: Jan Akkerman & Thijs Van Leer" doesn't seem to be available here--it goes deeper into their jazz roots than the original three releases. Back then they didn't have that liberty while they were targeting British and American prog audiences. Certain concessions to culture had to be made, such as the song "Happy Nightmare (Mescaline)". This is a very good jazz number given a dope-oriented title to draw stoner attention. The moral here is: if you know the sound, don't let a badly-chosen title throw you. There's a definite Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd sound to "Why Dream" and Van Leer does a good enough Ian Anderson flute imitation in "House Of the King" that I mistook the song for a Jethro Tull instrumental on an FM prog station. Then I got this album after having bought and loved the second "Moving Waves" release and stumbled on the song by accident. Which I guess is a corollary to the title versus sound hypothesis. It's the latter that matters.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Off to a good start
16 Jun 2006
Format:Audio CD
Released in 1970, this debut by the Dutch prog band Focus is fairly well developed and many of the elements of the classic Focus sound are in place - a sound that would come to glorious fruition on the excellent Moving Waves (1971) and Focus III (1972). Featured prominently on this album are the incredible talents of virtuoso guitarist Jan Akkerman and flautist/keyboardist Thijs van Leer (love the Hammond organ work and his flute work is killer). Let us just say that their playing is impressive even at this early stage. Supporting them is a solid bass player and an excellent drummer. Come to think of it, Focus always had good drummers. With respect to the vocals, they are actually pretty good and fit well with the material.
What sets this album apart from their definitive works however, are tinges of 1960's psychedelia, which can be heard to varying degrees on Black Beauty, Why Dream, and especially on the perky, chirpy tune Sugar Island (an anti-Fidel Castro track). I suppose the psychedelia makes sense however - this was 1970 after all. Other tracks, while extremely enjoyable, show evidence of growing pains such as the Jethro-Tull inflected House of the King, along with the jazzy (and mellotron heavy) Happy Nightmare (Jan rips it up on this tune). Because I have no imagination whatsoever, my favorite tracks include those that sound just like classic Focus - the opening track Focus (vocal), the blistering instrumental jam Anonymous, which features excellent solos by Jan and Thijs (although I could have done without the not-so-hot bass solo), and the awesome closing instrumental track Focus. I guess it is worth noting that iterations of the tracks Focus and Anonymous would turn up on subsequent albums (e.g. Focus II and III, and Anonymous II).
Although this album has been (supposedly) remastered by Red Bullet (2001) and features excellent sound quality that is about it - there are no liner notes or photos whatsoever.
All in all this is a great debut by a fantastic prog rock band and is highly recommended along with Moving Waves and Focus III.
What sets this album apart from their definitive works however, are tinges of 1960's psychedelia, which can be heard to varying degrees on Black Beauty, Why Dream, and especially on the perky, chirpy tune Sugar Island (an anti-Fidel Castro track). I suppose the psychedelia makes sense however - this was 1970 after all. Other tracks, while extremely enjoyable, show evidence of growing pains such as the Jethro-Tull inflected House of the King, along with the jazzy (and mellotron heavy) Happy Nightmare (Jan rips it up on this tune). Because I have no imagination whatsoever, my favorite tracks include those that sound just like classic Focus - the opening track Focus (vocal), the blistering instrumental jam Anonymous, which features excellent solos by Jan and Thijs (although I could have done without the not-so-hot bass solo), and the awesome closing instrumental track Focus. I guess it is worth noting that iterations of the tracks Focus and Anonymous would turn up on subsequent albums (e.g. Focus II and III, and Anonymous II).
Although this album has been (supposedly) remastered by Red Bullet (2001) and features excellent sound quality that is about it - there are no liner notes or photos whatsoever.
All in all this is a great debut by a fantastic prog rock band and is highly recommended along with Moving Waves and Focus III.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Good beginnings for a great prog band
4 Mar 2002
Format:Audio CD
In & Out of Focus is not bad for a debut by one of the biggest prog rock bands to come out of the Netherlands (same country that also gave us bands like Earth & Fire, Ekseption, Trace, Finch, Alquin, Supersister, Kayak, etc.). Of course the sound of this album has not been fully developed, and there are several pop oriented numbers like "Black Beauty". This is also by far their most vocal dominated album. There are a couple of cuts that showed the more progressive direction the band will quickly move to. One is the instrumental opening, "Focus", and the other is "Anonymous" which I think works a lot better than Focus 3's "Anonymous II" because it's shorter allowing the band to focus (no pun intended) better. "House of the King" is a totally wonderful and cathy Jethro Tull-like number that was later featured on the LP version of Focus 3, because the American LP version of In & Out of Focus did not feature that cut (but the European version did). Also the US version of this LP did not feature "Sugar Island" either. The IRS CD reissue features the American cover but all eight of the European tracks. Regardless, this is a nice and listenable album, but much better things were to come to this band with their followup Moving Waves.
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