Focus – 3 (1972)

There are quite a few vinyl records I have pre-inherited from my father. He doesn't have a vinyl player anymore, so I enthusiastically agreed to take care of his vinyl collection. This third album by the Dutch progressive rock band, Focus, is one of those albums. I remember Focus from my childhood. My father used to especially like flute in popular music and Thijs Van Leer of Focus is quite a masterful flute player. My father also had his solo albums that were much more clearly focused (pun intended) on the flute. Focus, as a band, is probably best known for their ridiculous song Hocus Pocus. The music video for that song is a must see for anyone who wants to see just how ridiculous the prog rock movement can get. There's actual yodelling involved. This song is not on this album though.



I agree with my father in a sense that I enjoy the songs with the flute most on this album. The second song Love Remembered is one of the best moments on this album. Most of the other songs, especially on the first half are very tacky and show exactly what was so ridiculous in the prog rock scene. The sounds are also really commercial and cheesy in some places. Sylvia is one of those songs. There are even some extremely high-pitched vocals, typical of the early prog rock scene, on this album, which today sound just really strange.

I used to be a huge progressive rock fan when I was about 14 years old. I used to listen to lots of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and King Crimson. That phase was related to a phase in my life when I really wanted to learn how to play bass more. Progressive rock was complicated to play and thus it was interesting. Focus was never a band that I would've really listened to that much, but listening to it now, it very well could've been.

In addition to beautiful flute ballads and tacky prog rock songs, this album has some excellent jamming moments. The longest (over 26 minutes) song Anonymus II (this is not a typo, by the way) has some excellent guitar solos and even a drum solo that doesn't sound too bad. At best, there are some very jazzy elements on this album and when the band realises to tone down their biggest rock sounds, they actually sound very interesting.

I have to also give a special mention to the organ player in this band. The organ solos are pretty epic. Some of the funkier scenes even remind me of 70's Herbie Hancock.

I don't think there are that many moments when I would specifically want to listen to Focus nowadays, but having a project such as this is great precisely because i can return to albums that I haven't listened to in a long time and see if I can appreciate some elements from all of them. Focus' 3 definitely has it's moments in the jazzy and funky instrumental jams and in the more relaxed flute sequences, but I would rather leave some of the most progressive rock -style songs and commercial sounds out.

Album on Spotify.