After building a solid core audience through relentless touring and a string of hard-rocking albums,
Foghat
finally hit the big time in 1975 with
Fool for the City
. It still stands out as the best album in the group's catalog because it matched their road-tested abilities as hard rockers to a consistent set of tunes that were both well-crafted and ambitious. The tone for the album is set by its title track: This hard-rocking gem not only pairs riff-driven verses with an effective shout-along chorus, but also throws in a few surprising moments where the guitars are taken out of the mix completely and
Nick Jameson
's bass is allowed to take the lead in a funky breakdown.
also produced an enduring
rock
radio favorite in
"Slow Ride,"
a stomping
tune that transcends the inherent cliches of its "love is like a car ride" lyrics with a furious performance from the band and a clever arrangement that works in well-timed automotive sound effects during the verses and plays up the band's ability to work an R&B-styled groove into their hard-rocking sound (again, note the thumping bassline from
Jameson
). Further radio play was earned with
"Take It or Leave It,"
an acoustic-based
ballad
that worked synthesizers into its subtle yet carefully layered arrangement to become one of the group's finest slow numbers. The album's other songs don't stand like the aforementioned selections, but they all flow together nicely thanks to a consistently inspired performance from the band and clever little arrangement frills that keep the group's
boogie
-oriented
fresh (example: the witty
spoken word
bit at the end of
"Drive Me Home"
). All in all,
is both
's finest achievement in the studio and one of the high points of 1970s
hard rock
. ~ Donald A. Guarisco