Somewhat neglected at home, Foghat were one of those classic American-styled British acts, such as Bad Company or Peter Frampton, who found massive stardom in the US playing definitively American music. The blues-rock on these two albums (the band’s fifth and sixth) has its immediate roots in the British blues boom of the late 60s (the core of Foghat was Dave Peveret, Tony Stevens and Roger Earl, previously of seminal UK blues-boomers Savoy Brown); but while the early 70s in the UK mainstream was dominated by the opposing poles of glam and prog, blues-rock was the sound of teenage America until disco came along.
The music on these two albums is exactly what one would expect – high energy, riff-laden rock, awash with slide guitars, boogie-fied basslines, chanted choruses and endless soloing. Of the two albums, Night Shift is marginally heavier, but they’re both fairly homogenous and, collected as one long back-to- back listen, repetitive. At their best – most notably on their classic theme tune Slow Ride – the band exudes a feel-good party vibe that makes them extremely infectious, albeit in small doses.
