- Artist
- Blue October
- Label
- Island
- Release date
- 6th November 2006
- Genre
- Rock
Houston-based quintet Blue October are something of a phenomenon in the US. Foiled might be their debut release in the UK but it's the band's fifth album in their own neck of the woods and has already seen a top 30 album position and shifted more than 200,000 copies "over there". Will it reach such heady heights "over here"? Chances are it won't, but it will most certainly find favour with those who like their rock music at the progressive end of the spectrum.
In more than one or two places Foiled sounds like something Marillion might have made a few years back, not least since on a few tracks frontman Justin Furstenfeld sounds like a dead ringer for Fish, former singer with that particular band. When he's not sounding like Fish, Justin does a passable take on one of his childhood heroes, namely Peter Gabriel.
There are some interesting ideas in here, with some vague African music influences, notably on Into The Ocean, while the ethereal, Enya-esque Congratulations has lots to commend it, not least a vocal contribution from our very own Imogen Heap, and the perky, hook-ridden Overweight is a lighthearted little number.
And yet while the record has things going for it, it still feels like a disparate work. It is almost as if it doesn't know what it wants to be, and while varying the style of music across an album can work wonders a common thread is pretty much vital. Apart from Furstenfeld's nasally vocals there is rather too much going on to sew anything together. Which is a pity.
