fawn - Foxtails: Review
Foxtails
are an American screamo band from the northeast who have been around for almost a full decade with 4 albums under their belt. They've received attention from both critics and fans in the hardcore underground for their fusions of screamo with genres like classic post-hardcore and contemporary emo.
Review By Lav:
I feel like I've been aware of this band for a while and have heard buzz about their singles or records here and there but this is the first time I've taken a deep plunge. It also felt like in my head that this was a relatively new band but I blinked and suddenly their four albums deep so I had to do a little bit of catching up before doing this review. But now I'm here and I can say for certain that I appreciate some of the unique things the band does among their hardcore contemporaries. I can also say that this is my favorite of their records to date and the increase in buzz among critics is appropriate.
The thing that really sold me on this record at first was the amount of people talking about the track space orphan last year. I think it was the only single released from the record which makes sense because it has everything you really need to get a grasp on the bands sound. The song opens with violin which is a new addition for the band and one they aren't shy about deploying on the album. It's also constantly shifting between different musical styles which is something the band does on pretty much every song here. What really got my attention was the tracks lead vocals which scream out in anguish with the "every single time" refrain that still sticks out to me as one of the albums most memorable moments assisted by the dramatic rise of backing instrumentation that follows it like a thunderstorm rolling in.
Energy is something the band handles really well for the most part given how consistently they switch up their style during songs. Ego Death is the appropriately titled opener all about the painful realization that the world has fallen short of expectation in pretty much every way. That vitriolic disappointment carries over into ataque de nervios the first song on the album that really tries to show you how instrumentally technical the band can be. The track has an art punky edge with the vocal switching between gritty near spoken word and classic teary eyed screamo. It's an incredibly rousing moment.
gallons of spiders is another highlight despite being on of the records quietest tracks. It starts off surprisingly melancholy like you can almost see shades of something like Duster coming through. It shifts from there into an emotional earlier kind of post-hardcore that I also really enjoy. On the exact opposite end of the scale but also a big highlight we have la belle indifference which is another incredibly fitting title and the band really hammers it home on the hook. The way that both the vocals and instrumental are layered all come together in a really satisfying way and the track ends on a full minute of some of the most insane and unhinged noise I've heard in a long time and I find it irresistible.
In fact almost the whole second half of the record is pretty enjoyable. Catalyst is interesting even if it follows a similar sonic palette to much of the other songs on the record starting off with stable spoken word before erupting into a screamo passage. I love the rapid fire percussion that fires away behind the screamed refrains and I actually kind of wish the track spent more time in this section because it's absolutely pummeling. Closing track paper tiger is the most thematically direct song on the record and it's delivered with fittingly blunt vocals that are very frontal in the mix. It takes on a kind of theatricality across its finale few minutes that stands out quite a bit on the record but as I listened to it again and again it got more fascinating and I think it's a pretty grand way to bring the album to a close.
While there isn't anything necessarily terrible on the record it did have moments that I'm not crazy about. life is a death scene, princess is probably my favorite song title on the record and it's also the track that leans the heaviest into pure screamo influences. The big issue here is that the compositional shifts don't support each other at all and occasionally they even wreck momentum set up by other sections of the song. star-crossed has an almost identical issue on top of not being a Kacey Musgraves cover like I was secretly hoping for. The changes in intensity both sonically and vocally certainly come out of nowhere and while some of the change can be an interesting surprise too often it ruins the flow of the overall composition.
Much has been made in reviews of the album about the addition of violin and while I think it's a valuable element of the bands sound for the most part the one place I think it becomes a bit of a hindrance is on gazelle. I might get some hate for this but I just don't think the violin led passages sound good nor do I think they fit in or support the chugging guitars and rapid fire percussion that back them. The whole second half is much more of a dissonant tailspin as they take on the form of a far angrier Black Country, New Road with everything held together by the direct and monotone vocals.
I'm impressed by fawn in a number of ways. While it's not perfect, very few records are and what flaws it does have are easy to over look when the constantly thematic and compositional shifting keep me on edge for basically the entire record. Obviously I think fans of the band and fans of screamo in general will enjoy what they've presented here but their sound has a technicality to it that should make it appealing to an even wider audience of people coming from the worlds of midwest emo and old school post-hardcore. Even early on in the year I think this is likely to be one of 2022's hardcore highlights. 7.5/10
