Album review: Foxy Shazam, 'The Church of Rock and Roll'
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By GEORGE KIELTY, Gibbs High
Foxy Shazam is best described by the first half of its slang moniker: foxy. With the simple and sufficient guitars and Eric Nally’s over-the-top vocals, Foxy Shazam has a sound quite unlike any other. Even if the name does translate to mean “cool shoes.”
The Church of Rock and Roll is Foxy’s fourth studio album, and indeed does not disappoint. If you’ve ever taken a guilty pleasure from the Darkness’ I Believe in a Thing Called Love, or music by the Tom Tom Club, the The Church of Rock and Roll is for you. If anyone is foolish enough to doubt the quality of the sound, try I Like It as an appetizer. The guitar work is like a cinder block that runs full-on into the back of your head, followed by the band’s powerful ensemble of voices. However, the real hook to this song has to be the lyrics, unfortunately a little too NSFW to put into a high school newspaper. I will let you in on one of my favorite rhymes that is a slight bit more, ahem, acceptable than most: “You hypnotize/me with your hips and thighs,” as if that doesn’t put the song in context at all. Like I said, if you like this song, you will love the rest of the album.
But watch out, for some of the songs can get a bit monotonous. Holy Touch, while it has a delightful tempo and progression, leaves a constant niggling at the back of your mind that it sounds an awful lot like the other songs on the album; same with The Temple. For a good bit of contrast, listen to Forever Together, a charming story about Nally leaving his son behind to go on tour and how he hurts so much not seeing him as often as he likes. This track is filled with clever little nuances, like the different voices for the line “Hello Dr. Jekyll/Hello Mr. Hyde,” and the incessant miniscule keys that play through the song.
Quite an enjoyable album, all in all. You’d never suspect such awesome rock vocals from a singer classically trained for opera, but I don’t think Eric Nally would be better suited doing anything else. The best sounding and the coolest shoes I’ve ever heard.
Grade: ****, 4/5 asterisks
