Fronted it seems by a less cynical Luke Haines, Ontario's The Foreign Films peddle an uncomplicated, retro Pop sound. Their natural habitat seems to be the early Seventies Glam period, also a very nostalgic time which harked back itself to the late Fifties Golden Age of Rock and Roll.
The Foreign Films have been putting out records since 2007 and Ocean Moon, their latest, hardly carves out new vistas of experimential territory. This is classic, romantic pop stuff of the kind that Mott The Hoople, Wizzard and ELO were once known for. The songs here are swoons within swoons. I'll bet they're Roy Orbison, Phil Spector and Springsteen fans.
Song after song returns to the same pitch but they're all well formed. As I said frontman Bill Majoros certainly bears a close resemblance vocally to Luke Haines, ironic really given that there isn't an ounce of smugness or wry humour in his delivery. The songs have an innocence that is quite remarkable in this day and age.
So, not a 2020 record, but then again, not one that tries to be so for a moment. This has the kind of yearning quality that bonded John Lennon and Harry Nilsson in the early Seventies without the resultant hangover. Ocean Moon is full of classic moments, all of which you've heard many times before. That's by no means a slur. This stuff will never die out entirely.
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