Hang

In its brief and full history, Foxygen has developed a reputation for being somewhat of a hot mess. The music is there, proven by the band’s breakthrough 2013 album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, with its spastic, sharp-witted shifts between hook-ridden 1960s rock and shape-dissolving psychedelic moments. However, the live execution is less fluid, more jutting and spastic. It leaves one wondering how Foxygen’s newest, Hang, will play out on stage, for it seems the most grandiose yet. Accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra, the songs swerve fearlessly between theatrical and feel-good classic rock, sometimes within a matter of seconds. On songs like “Mrs. Adams,” singer Sam France’s voice moves from Bowie to Jagger in a single unbroken line, while “Avalon” starts with a Harry Nilsson swing before veering into choral moments that feel like a number out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, ending on a nearly vaudevillian note. One could argue the album’s just too pastiche, but regardless, the kaleidoscopic result is something to be admired.