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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fox did it first, 17 Jan 2005
FOX'S eponymously titled and debut 1975 album was the first LP I ever bought and it is still in my top five 30 years later.A woefully under- appreciated album in the annals of pop history, it is quite simply a masterpiece. It is easily up there with other classics of the 70s - Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, George's All Things Must Pass - you name it. Honest. Why? Noosha's compellingly rich voice and harmonies both caressed and swooped over some simply fabulous songs.
The group's Kenny Young, as producer, innovated multi-tracking techniques groups like Queen eagerly emulated (and were credited for). The album also embraced the synthesiser a good five years before inferior efforts by Ultravox, Tears for Fears and Depeche Mode et al. This all made for a sonic joy to anyone with ears, even those that were just eight years old like mine. As frontwoman, Noosha's voice, looks, and demeanor confirmed her as a class act, but her unique talent probably precluded her from further, and deserved success. I bought the album when it came out after being blown away by the singles Only You Can and Imagine Me Imagine You. Maybe it was an unusual choice when most of my peers were into Mud, Pilot or the Wombles but I didn't care. It just sounded utterly different to anything I had ever heard before. It took my mum, no mean record collector and equally impressed, to inform me that the first track on Side one, Love Letters, was actually a cover of a classic Ketty Lester hit twelve years earlier. Fox's version has never been bettered. Highlights apart from the singles are, I think, He's Got Magic and Pisces Babies but every track is marvellous. He's Got Magic was such an advanced piece of music making, I really thought my dad's speakers were on the blink. The Stevie Smith-esque The More that closes Side one is a true delight and Side two opens with Noosha's vocals subtle, smooth and languorous. It closes with her attacking Red Letter Day, effortlessly sliding up and down the octaves a good three years before Kate Bush employed the same technique. The album was quite simply way ahead of its time and as a result never really harvested the plaudits it should have done. That is a great shame. I am the only person I know with a copy but it's great to know that there are others out there who really appreciate its worth. Buy. Savour. Enjoy.
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