...And Star Power [LP]

Sam France and Jonathan Rado took Foxygen from being their high-school recording project to capturing the attention of the independent music community at large with stellar albums that blended multiple classic rock & roll reference points into catchy collage-minded tunes. Their 2013 effort We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic saw the band at the peak of its powers, channeling (or directly borrowing from) Dylan, Jagger, Bowie, Reed, and dozens of other rock innovators but somehow avoiding coming off as sheer derivation through inspired songwriting, carefully groomed presentation, and an unnameable charm. With follow-up ...And Star Power, Foxygen expand outward from their concentrated songwriting style, offering up a stuffed double album that zips from murky FM radio rock to bristling punk and back to cosmic balladry over its 24 tracks and 82-minute playing time. First single and standout track "How Can You Really" taps into the same late-night confessional feel of Todd Rundgren's '70s hits, moving along breezily with a choir of perky background singers, horn sections, and the hookiest chorus of the album. Sludgier but still catchy are soft rock ballad "Coulda Been My Love" and "Cosmic Vibrations," a tune that shifts from a burst of "White Light/White Heat" noise into a morphine-addled reworking of Bob Dylan's "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowland." The album switches gears after its first quarter, offering more and more interludes of tweaky punk and wandering jams between its more traditional songs. ~ Fred Thomas