Foghat
Family Joules

There are times when I wonder about releases, quite often actually, sometimes more than other times. This is one of those times, Family Joules by Foghat was released in 2003 and was the first album to feature Charlie Huhn on vocals and the first with guitarist Bryan Bassett. As far as I can see it was an album that didn’t make much of a mark, and yet it was rereleased in 2010 with three bonus track and now it is rereleased again on a new label, perhaps it will come again in 2023 when it is 20 years since it was released. This issue offers nothing new compared with the original release, the cover is the same, the songs and everything, like a new pressing but they still promote it – is it such a great album that you just have to hear it again? I can’t imagine that the demand is so high that it merits another release.

Blues/boogie rock, kind of like the latter albums by Foghat, not as good as last time I reviewed them. One thing they could have done was to make it shorter, reissue the album with fewer tracks; that would have been something. The production is okay, Huhn sings fairly well but there isn’t really anything that sets this album apart, it sounds like most Foghat and similar stuff. Catchy and so on but also long and not that varied, doesn’t really feel like anything that will have you stop and take notice.

Pretty average album overall, and I really have a hard time seeing why this is being released. It isn’t really great, the only thing about it is that it was the first time with a new vocalist but there are already several more releases with the same vocalist now so it isn’t unique in any way, and it is not better than other stuff the band has given us. I cannot really see anything that merits this album to be reissued twice in less than two decades; that is just mumbo jumbo. It feels like the time and effort would have been much better spent on creating and releasing a new album, which would have deserved a lot more promotion and attention than this one, an album that is almost best forgotten.

I see no point at all in this release, the Foghat fans already have it, at least one of the versions and those who aren’t collecting Foghat have no use whatsoever for this album. There are so many better albums out there to listen to and anyone who says differently is just quoting the first track. It is just a waste of time and effort to reissue a generic rock album once again – you can do much better than this Metalville and Foghat.

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