Reviewed by Alex Figgis

Tilting their hats to music of the '60s and '70s, Starflyer 59 manage to reinterpret these sounds in an intelligent and novel way. Musically proficient, 'The Fashion Focus' is adequately produced by alternative music pioneer Gene Eugene, Lyrically, though intriguingly obscure in places, much of the material herein verge on the painfully simplistic; "It's time to fall in love, sad, so sad to see you go, stay a long,long time" ('A Holiday Song (Happy Holidays)'), or the bizarre 'Too Much Fun' where the band take just over seven minutes to share how both big dead end girls and boys who always shove appear to be having too much fun; doing what exactly, is sadly unclear. There are the faint allusions to more spiritual matters ('The Birthrite', 'Days Of Lamech'), but these are mostly obscure observations on life in general ('All The Time', 'Fell In Love At 22'). Overall the mood and tone of  ".Focus" is very much in the vein of The Manic Street Preachers, where the majority of material herein is both acutely depressing and seemingly void of hope.

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