This is the only thing I have ever heard about Foghat in my life: in high school, a friend of mine was talking about a bit by a comedian talking about how hypocritical it was that you have to dress up nice to go to church while in all the pictures of Jesus, He looks like the drummer from Foghat.

That’s why, when my in-laws were getting rid of things before they moved to Nashville, I picked up this record from a pile. There is no other reason. It certainly wasn’t the cover. And if I heard any of these songs on the radio, it wouldn’t implant enough interest in my head to trigger a purchase if I found it while digging through a dollar bin. According to Wikipedia, the band regards the album “a tentative foray into New Wave” (emphasis mine). Tentative is right–at no point does the band seem to be committing fully to either new wave or their own blues rock (arguably, the musical opposite of new wave). And if we’ve learned anything from Neil Young, it’s that new wave isn’t to be entered into part-way. Sure, Elvis Costello could have his feet in Buddy Holly rock and roll and new wave both, but there’s only one Elvis Costello, and sometimes even he couldn’t do it (see: King of America, the quickest turnaround my collection has ever seen). And so, because this record is neither new wave or blues rock, it is a lukewarm, uninspired slab of vinyl, and I spew it from my mouth.

Although, the more Full Time Lover actually functions at about 80%. I might actually hold on to the record just for that track’s guitar part.

Edit: to be fair, the album does have some enjoyable moments–when the band loses the balancing act between new wave and blues rock and leans hard one direction or the next. Full Time Lover is successful because it eschews its pentatonic guitar riffing and blues machoism for a fun chorus and vibey guitar lines. On the other hand, Baby I Can Change Your Mind leans hard into blues, and as a result isn’t terrible. Unfortunately, they spend far too much time trying to avoid either extreme when they ought to indulge one impulse or the other. Also unfortunately, just because they make a good new wave song and a good blues rock song doesn’t mean they belong on the same album at all.