(Review from progarchives.com)

Despite certain criticism, the debut album of Focus is a quite original and artistically coherent music statement. True, critics are mainly complaining about the weak vocal tracks and surely Black Beauty and Sugar Island are not the kind of songs you cannot live without. But the rest is pretty much excellent!

The opening – vocal – and the closing – instrumental – versions of the self-titled “Focus” are pretty solid progressive rock statements and present a blueprint for later albums, where this composition would traditionally be re-interpreted. The instrumental Focus contains some wonderful Akkerman’s solo parts that suggest a nice, relaxing, almost lounge atmosphere of the kind Peter Green had composed in Albatross.

“Anonymous” is another gem presenting a mixture of medieval/renaissance elements with a strong, hard-rocking jazz improvisation, with some wild and vivid use of flute, piano and lead guitar. There is a solo part on bass guitar where Martijn Dresden shows that his performance skills were not the reason for his departure after this album. The bass sounds like the similar part of the crazy improvisation suite by their fellow countrymen Ekseption done few years later.

“Happy Nightmare” and “Why Dream” are vocal tracks, but both are fine melodic and slightly psychedelic songs, an obvious traces of Beatles and early Pink Floyd influences. There is a fine chamber jazz section in the former, with mellotron and strings/violins. The vocals are indeed not very convincing, they were probably never meant to be in the forefront – much like its use in later Camel albums – their role is pure atmospheric. Whether this was an intention of the band while recording this album is a different story and they probably were rather experimental. On the subsequent albums they were reduced to occasional scat and yodelling and that’s what Thijs van Leer would become a famous for.

Finally, here comes House of the King! Acoustic guitar chords and lively percussive rhythm make just enough space for Thijs van Leer’s extravaganza flute solo play. It is one of the most memorable and popular flute solos in rock music, a melody that gained a widespread popularity across generations.

“In and Out of Focus” is a good debut that is often overlooked in the wake of Focus’ later stronger albums.

Line-up:
- Thijs van Leer / vocals, keyboards, flute
- Jan Akkerman / guitars
- Hans Cleuver / drums
- Martijn Dresden / bass

Track List:
01. Focus…(Vocal) – 2:44
02. Black Beauty – 3:08
03. Sugar Island – 3:05
04. Anonymous – 6:32
05. House Of The King – 2:51
06. Happy Nightmare (Mescaline) – 3:58
07. Why Dream – 3:59
08. Focus (Instrumental) – 9:45

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