Focus III - Focus

...under their belt, Dutch proggers Focus had a lot to live up to with their third album. They needn't have worried - 1973 was the turnaround year for the band, when they delivered their second (and biggest) magnum opus. The double 3 (or III) was the album that finally broke them in the UK, at that time the market that all serious musicians strived to crack. After just two (now legendary) appearances on The Old Grey Whistle Test, they became an overnight ...
...Ruiter new to the band, Focus locked themselves away in the studio and worked feverishly for months, ending up with an album that threatened to topple their UK contemporaries off the charts. With eight tracks ranging from just under 3 to just over 25 minutes in length and covering all sorts of musical styles and genres, Focus 3 showcased all of the band's abilities, talents and influences - Jan Akkerman's (already a legend in his home country) guitar ... more

With a shaky debut (In & Out Of Focus) and one masterpiece (Moving Waves) under their belt, Dutch proggers Focus had a lot to live up to with their third album. They needn't have worried - 1973 was the turnaround year for the band, when they delivered their second (and biggest) magnum opus. The double 3 (or III) was the album that finally broke them in the UK, at that time the market that all serious musicians strived to crack. After just two (now legendary) appearances on The Old Grey Whistle Test, they became an overnight sensation. 3 pushed their popularity up so much, that for the first time they were headlining their own lengthy UK tours and rivalling even homegrown UK bands.

With funky and technically proficient bass player Bert Ruiter new to the band, Focus locked themselves away in the studio and worked feverishly for months, ending up with an album that threatened to topple their UK contemporaries off the charts. With eight tracks ranging from just under 3 to just over 25 minutes in length and covering all sorts of musical styles and genres, Focus 3 showcased all of the band's abilities, talents and influences - Jan Akkerman's (already a legend in his home country) guitar playing had come on in leaps and bounds, Thijs Van Leer had added all sorts of unusual instruments to his arsenal of sound, whils Ruiter and drummer Pierre Van Der Linden made for an enviable rhythm section.

3 covers all sorts of ground - there's some jazz courtesy of the epic 25 minute Anonymous 2 (originally a live improvised vamp of an instrumental from their first album, which was less than half the length), some straight ahead prog (the title track, the wonderfully titled Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers! and the haunting Carnival Fugue), some delicate medi-eval Englishe inspired lute passages (Love Remembered and Elspeth Of Nottingham), some mucking around (the odd Round Goes The Gossip, replete with gregorian and latin inspired nonsense) and the barn storming Sylvia, AKA the track that sent one record pressing plant in the UK into evening and weekend overtime due to enormous demand following its unveiling during one of the band's Whistle Test performances.

Overall, Focus 3 is as good an example of prog rock as any, and probably the finest Dutch prog album ever recorded. As a bonus, this remaster tops the decidedly average remasters of their other albums and sounds fresh as a daisy.

Essential.

Listen to this if you like - Jethro Tull, Yes, Grobschnitt 

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