Tibetan Buddhists believe that certain enlightened souls such as the Dalai Lama can return to Earth, reincarnating so they may continue to fulfill an important role. When they find a child they suspect is the reincarnation of an important figure, they perform a test where those children must recognize items from their previous life.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe Freddie Mercury is back in the form of Foxy Shazam frontman, Eric Sean Nally. Their latest album, The Church of Rock and Roll‘s first and title track explodes with a confidently unstoppable riff that slams your eardrums like a dump truck backing through your bedroom wall at midnight, and within the first minute of the album they declare: “Your music sucks, including us. It’s time we clear our name!”
Sure sounds to me like the words of someone waking up after a short detour through death.
Completing the one-two punch, their second track, “I Like It” declares with nothing but sincerity, “It’s the biggest black ass I’ve ever seen – and I like it, I like it!” Fat Bottomed Girls, anyone? Such brazen derierre worship conjures up every certainty that we’ve found our fallen hero. The track recalls the greatest achievements of 70′s and 80′s glam rock with a guitar solo that might kill Queen’s Brian May – and then make him rise from the dead.
These first two tracks of The Church of Rock and Roll are so strong that I was prepared for the greatest album of our time, a surefire breakthrough smash that would establish Foxy Shazam as the saviors of rock that our generation has spent many a night praying for. So impressed was I that I had to stop listening and go back to revisit this tour de force that clocks in at a combined total of just under five minutes.
The problem occurred when I finally got around to listening to the rest of the album.
“Holy Touch” holds on to the religion motif and some of my interest. No doubt a strong track. It certainly keeps up the pace.
But the fire in the rest of the album subsides. “Last Chance at Love” continues to conjure Mercury, but the Mercury of “Radio Ga Ga,” not “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “We Are the Champions.” And that more or less continues for the rest of the album, though “Forever Together,” a take on the challenges of the difficult life of rock stars with some humorous asides is a high point. Well, I guess at the end of the day it’s not funny, because he misses his family.
I guess I shouldn’t be greedy. Having someone with as much talent as Freddie around again to produce one, let alone two tracks to ignite my ears is something I should be thankful for.
For that reason I gladly purchased the album, and would recommend you do the same. After all, the Church of Rock and Roll needs donations.
Verdict: 4/5 Stars
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