To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, “this is the way the band ends, not with a bang but a whimper”. Sort of. After releasing five critically acclaimed albums in seven years (band members Rado and France were both just 15 years old and still in high school when recording their debut album Jurrassic Exxplosion Phillipic) Foxygen appear to be calling it quits with their latest and most likely their last album. Sort of.
Appropriately titled Seeing Other People, multi-instrumentalist producer/arranger extraordinaire Jonathan Rado along with enfant terrible bad boy lead singer Sam France, both not yet 30, quietly released their sixth and final album earlier this year in the spring of 2019. Criminally ignored by much of the music press and the record buying public at large Seeing Other People‘s release date came and went with little to no fanfare. Even the band’s label Jagjaguwar Records seemingly couldn’t care less. Rado and France weren’t the only ones left seeing other people after Jag chose not to spend a dime promoting the album, terminating their relationship with the band after Foxygen made it clear they would not be hitting the road touring their follow up to 2017’s theatrically challenging Hang LP. Rado explained to Billboard earlier this year:
“The way we want to tour has always been completely un-doable. We always manage to pay our band, and also pay for the mode of transportation for touring our large fucking band – because it’s always been these big productions that we want to put out – but in the end we come home and we’ve made zero money. So, on this, for this album, I think we were just a little sick of it”.
Rado went on to say:
“Something that is nice about not touring this record is that I don’t have to put touring Foxygen over making something new, which is very exciting. I think that’s something that for me personally, one of the reasons I don’t want to tour is that I don’t want to pass up opportunities to put new art into the world”, adding “for our mental health, I think not touring is gonna be good for us”.
In a letter accompanying advance pre-release promotional copies of the album lead singer France described Seeing Other People as “adult contemporary”, and a “yuppie-pop masterpiece”. Always conceptual, France went on to say:
“We wanted to capture the feel of great artists from the ’60s and ’70s, but, you know, the albums they made in say, 1986. Maybe not their best work, but when they were trying to move into these adult themes and stuff.”
It’s been a wild ride for the duo throughout the last 15 years, most notably since early 2011 when discovered and ultimately propelled forward by their mentor, the late great indie record producer singer/songwriter Richard Swift (1977-2018). Throughout six wonderfully diverse albums of polar opposites, not one sounding alike, Foxygen spent the better part of their 20’s immersed in the whirlwind of a relentlessly evolving performance art project transforming from one unlikely incarnation to the next channeling 60’s psychedelic pop, 70’s drug addled glam/punk, 80’s MOR, vaudeville, show tunes, R&B, soul, disco and beyond.
Time will tell what’s in store for the brothers Foxygen. As one of today’s most sought after independent record producers it’s in Rado’s best economic interest to stay at home and cash the cheques while, along with new partner Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, War On Drugs, The Voidz) adding to his ever growing list of production credits (Father John Misty, The Lemon Twigs, Whitney, Alex Cameron, Houndmouth, Tim Heidecker, Weyes Blood, Matt Maltese, Jackie Cohen). Famous for his refusal to use computers in the recording process, Rado recently upgraded from his home garage studio in Woodlawn Hill’s, California to new digs at Sonora Recordings in Los Feliz, Elliott Smith’s windowless one time Figure 8 recording studio located in a quiet spot just across the street from the Los Angeles River.
As for Foxygen’s difficult wild man lead singer the jury’s still out. According to France, every A&R person in attendance at his first ever solo show earlier this year in Los Angeles told him “thanks, but no thanks”. Undaunted, France says he still has something to prove to an indie music scene that, in his words, has become “boring”. Unwilling to forgo his reputation as a “wild rock n’ roller” the consistently unpredictable France insists he’s looking forward to making religious music in the future, possibly even a Christian music record. Currently at work on a yet to be named solo album France leaves Foxygen fans to wait and see. Until then legions of their followers will simply have to make due with seeing other people.
Rating: 7.5/10
Star Rating: 3.5/5
2019 Song Of The Day Club 22/52
Song Of The Day Club 