Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 11, 2024

For a band that may arguably not be on that many folks' radar, Foghat is having at least a sporadic Blu-ray resurgence this year, with a prior release of Foghat: Slow Ride Live in Concert earlier this year, and now this audio Blu-ray of what may be one of the band's best remembered efforts, 1974's Energized. As I mentioned in the Foghat: Slow Ride Live in Concert Blu-ray review, Foghat was almost one of those "stealth bands" that managed to chalk up considerable sales while maybe never quite bursting through into mainstream awareness. That may be indicated by this very album, which didn't really produce any notable singles, and managed to just barely crack the Top 40 albums, but still managed to get certified Gold, which is likely attributable to longer lived rather than "flash in the pan" sales. In that regard, one of my handy dandy and typically authoritative books by Joel Whitburn* lists Energized as having charted for a hefty 30 weeks, the second longest lived album chart action for the band ( Fool for the City managed to chart for an entire year).

*For those who refer to the Whitburn books as much as I do and who may not have seen it, I share a Whitburn adjacent anecdote in the American Movie 4K Blu-ray review.

The album's track list can be seen in the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review.

Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As can be seen by the screenshots accompanying this review, the video content of this AVC encoded disc is simply a static menu. This disc features the kind of authoring I personally prefer, where using the colored buttons on your remote allows you to toggle between audio codecs, so it's not strictly necessary to even have a monitor or display on to enjoy the disc.

Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Foghat: Energized offers an enjoyable and occasionally raucous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 track (as usual with these Quadio releases, a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 option is also available). Some of the riff driven material like some elements in Honey Hush tend to blast out of all four channels simultaneously, which reinforces their power but perhaps makes attempting to identify isolated instruments a bit of a challenge. Other songs, like Step Outside, offer clear discrete channelization, with, for example, the kick drum and high hat entering front right and then the first pulsing rhythm guitar rear left, until all four channels are utilized. Wild Cherry has a semi-faltering opening that offers the drums up front first, before everything falls apart, and then a spirited entry from the rear. Midrange and low end are especially forceful throughout, but commendably don't overpower vocals or some of the higher solo guitar work.

Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with every Quadio release I've reviewed, there is no on disc supplemental material. The insert booklet recreates the original album's cover information, while offering the Quadio standbys of a picture of the boxes holding the master tapes, as well as Rhino's typical verbiage on setup.

Foghat: Energized Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's some vigorous blues inflected rock on this album, and fans of the band should be well pleased with the four channel sound offered. Recommended.