Foxy Shazam – Animality Opera
Release Date: 20th March 2025
Label: EEEOOOAH
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Genre: Alt Rock, Glam Rock, Pop Rock.
FFO: The Mars Volta, The Venetia Fair, The Darkness.
Review By: Jeff Finch
There is a moment on this new album by Foxy Shazam that sounds just like the scene in one of my favorite shows where the characters must “develop a taste for Freeform Jazz.” And anytime an album can make me harken back to happier times and childhood memories, it’s a keeper. Such is the case with the new album from Ohio stalwarts Foxy Shazam.
Brief intro, The Church of Rock and Roll was the first time I heard this band, and ever since, they’ve held a special place in my rotation, where some days it’s randomly time to jam some Shazam for a week straight. This new one, Animality Opera, is my first in many years, and it’s a treat to say the band sounds just as chaotic, just as energetic, just as much fun as they were back in the summer of 2012.
As previously mentioned, there are moments on this record that are straight jazz, horns roaring through the speakers as Eric Nally reminds us that he’s one of the most insanely talented (and underrated) vocalists in rock, the odd time signatures inhabiting grooves at every turn, conveying an underlying catchiness but with a veil of chaos covering it. Such is the case in You Don’t Judge the Birds, a track with more pronounced guitar work but one that is never longing for moments of flashiness, brief bursts of drums and horns alternating with Nally’s high notes, giving way to a head bobbing bass groove and a chorus, of sorts, that reminds this listener of The Beatles, an infectious rhythm and beat propelling us forward.
A song like Karaoke Pain, while bringing a bit more of a straightforward alt-rock sound to it, led by the pulsing bass and drums, is quickly joined by a strong, rhythmic piano beat, maintained for the vast majority of the track only to be replaced by Alex Nauth’s intensely composed horns and a borderline country beat as the track rounds out with spoken word. Foxy Shazam, once again, showcases that the second they’ve got your interest piqued, be it with a simple, infectious drum beat or a pulsing electric guitar, you’re coming along for the whole ride, and you’re going to like it, even if it takes you places you never thought enjoyable.
Going backwards for a spell here, opener Rhumbatorium wasted no time in warming up, a furious display of lightning quick drumming quickly segueing into an offbeat rhythm rife with piano, horns, powerful crescendos accentuating Nally’s high notes, the horns meeting the intensity of his high-pitched vocals, all giving way to a furious stand-off between the bass and piano, drums briefly interrupting every few beats. The frenzied shifts from soft to hard, light to heavy, can take its toll on a listener if they’re not ready, entire songs seemingly randomized but not once feeling disjointed or otherwise fragmented, that taste for Freeform Jazz needed at points on this record.
It’s this chaos, this amalgamation of sound, ambiguous in its ultimate endgame, that gives the band, and thus their albums, a uniquely THEM sound, perhaps only topped by the preposterously enjoyable compositions of The Mars Volta. No one song sounds exactly the same, but all songs sound like Foxy Shazam, the band so masterful in their use of different instruments, sounds, and arrangements that it actively feels like there has to be a different band at points here, the band doing their best Foxy Shazam impression on every song. Grandiosity, simplicity, chaos, calm, all somehow words that describe what the band provided on this record. Baptized in the church of rock and roll more than a decade ago, this listener has but one final thought on Animality Opera, this beyond excellent addition to the Foxy Shazam lore: I Like It.
(4.5 / 5)
