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Foghat - Fool for the City Audio CD

A fair review of the Foghat "Fool for the City" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Foghat reviews here, or go back to the Foghat tabs.

Foghat Band: Foghat
Title: Fool for the City
Rating:
Release Date: 2008-12-23
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Fool for the City 2: My Babe 3: Slow Ride 4: Terraplane Blues 5: Save Your Loving (For Me) 6: Drive Me Home 7: Take It or Leave It

Won't buy - too low a bitrate w 256 kbs
Amazon's 256 kbs MP3's fail the listening test. While this is a fine album I would buy the physical CD for the better sound. At a MINIMUM Amazon should increase their offerings to 320 kbs, that's the lowest bitrate I would recommend.

To hear the difference between bitrates I suggest you check out the Internet radio station AVRO which broadcasts in several bitrates, one being 320 kbs and the difference between that and 256 kbs is obvious. You can tune into the stations from Shoutcast (and any music player), iTunes (hard to find the stations) or AVRO's web site.


No single version of "Slow Ride"?
Anyone who bought this for that song will be thoroughly disappointed. I can't believe in this age of "bonus tracks" this CD doesn't have the really well known single version of "Slow Ride"! I mean that was their biggest hit but the radio version is very different from the album version. The 8 minute plus album version is overblown guitar driven torture.


NOT a multi-channel version
It is listed as containing one on some places on the internet (though not on Amazon). Be aware that though a hybrid SACD (SACD and standard CD player compatible), the disc does not contain a multi-channel track.


Take a Slowride
Fool for the City (1975) is good ol' boogie rock and roll. Take a "Slowride," all 8:41 bone-crushing worth -- arguably Foghat's most well-known and trademark song. These guys from Britain played straight-ahead, get up and move, rock. Their live shows were really the best stuff they did; unfortunately, their live act was never caught that well on disc. Also, as a historical note, regettably, the original the vocalist/guitarist, Lonesome Dave, died early on and so the sound suffered considerably in later years as the band tried to regroup with new iterations of members -- the Foghat out there today is nothing like the original cast. .


MFSL CD Layer
With few exceptions, hybrid CD layers are superior to the regular issues, although I have been burned a couple of times when it was obvious that they simply put the old CD version on it instead of using DSD and down-converting to 16 bit PCM. I don't yet have a SACD player, but I've been buying hybrids since I can enjoy the remastered CD layers now, and be building a SACD collection for that day in the future.

Fool for the City is an album I have never owned before. I've owned Foghat's first two albums since they first came out on LP, and then CD, but I just never got around to picking this one up. I must say that I have really been missing out, as this is one of their best. So when MFSL came out with this hybrid, I figured the time had come to finally get this since I was practically guaranteed this would be the best sounding version up to this time. MFSL's CD's are always at least as good as the best out there, and usually significantly better, making them a "must have" in my book. But in spite of this, this CD was still a disappointment. The other two Rhino Foghat titles I own sound compressed, and this MFSL is no different. This must be the way Foghat made their stereo masters. That said, I'm sure this is the best that can be done with the master tapes, and I think it makes a case for finding the multi-tracks and remixing a new master sans the compression. Until that day arrives, if ever, don't expect any miracles - even from Mobile Fidelity.


You can see a complete list of all Foghat discography, or go back to the Foghat tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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