The young dudes in Foxygen have an incredible knack for making old soul music. The Los Angeles-based duo’s early experiments with nostalgia-tinged noise took glorious shape on last year’s Take the Kids Off Broadway with an assist from the mighty producer/player/Shins member Richard Swift. The gifted soundman returns for the boys’ January 22 album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, and we’ve already heard a couple examples of their friendly mysticism. There was the appropriately titled, mildly funky “Shuggie” in late November, and the swooning, lovely “San Francisco” (with its appropriately ’60s-flavored video) arrived earlier this week. Now we have “No Destruction” to mull over with its easy-rambling beat, Dylanesque phrasing and warm poetry about smoking pot on the subway and sipping milkshakes in hotel parlors. “You may take what you are given,” Sam France coos, “but you leave it on the floor.” Similarly, he and Jonathan Rado bundle up their faded influences and toss the crumpled thing over their shoulder, letting it sprawl out on its own accord.
Foxygen, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic track list:
1. “In the Darkness”
2. “No Destruction”
3. “On Blue Mountain”
4. “San Francisco”
5. “Bowling Trophies”
6. “Shuggie”
7. “Oh Yeah”
8. “We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic”
9. “Oh No 2”
