Foxing - Foxing: Review

Review by Lavender:

Foxing are an emo band from St. Louis, or at least they were at the start of their tenure. 10 years ago they released an album hailed by many as a modern classic of the genre, but since then they've wandered in all kinds of different stylistic directions. Unfortunately, I haven't been nearly as crazy about any of the material that followed. That culminated in 2021's arena-rocky mess Draw Down The Moon which I didn't particularly care for. But after the band announced a shift away from labels entirely with their self-titled 5th album and followed it up with two kick-ass singles, I was pretty excited to see what they delivered. 

Let's talk singles first. I likely wouldn't even be talking about this album right now if not for Greyhound the lead single that left me floored. For what it's worth Foxing aren't a band that I'm specifically expecting to be very playful with composition so the fact that they stretch this into a full 8-minute epic caught me by surprise. The entire first sequence plays out in epic dramatic fashion and the way it fades out amid crashing cymbals and enveloping distortion is amazing. Even though the rest of the song mostly plays on the sonic elements set up by its first segment, I'm still completely engaged with it throughout. 

The second single Hell 99 is a full on embrace of screamo which hilarious paints one of the happiest years in pop culture history, 1999, with these blistering cloudy shoegaze guitars that sound like Turnstile. The song also slips some hilarious references into the hook as a delightful finishing touch. Screamo styles pop up all over the record and usually with great results. Secret History serves as a gentle introduction to the album, at least at first. It takes less than two minutes to burst into a jagged blur of grinding fuzzed-out guitars and screaming. Though it bounces between these two phases a bit predictably, it's still a fun listen. 

Later on the album we get an excellent one-two-punch. Kentucky McDonald's is a deep cut that lyrically divulges a complete breakdown over a relationship and how it ended that all takes place literally on the bench outside a McDonald's. Its combination of tragic metaphorical imagery with achingly literal depictions of the clown decorum works wonders and the way the song holds off its ferocity until the perfect moment is irresistible. Looks Like Nothing immediately follows and once again keeps its most brutal intensity in check until the perfect moment and the results pay huge dividends. This song in particular has a throttling instrumental combo that it just beats you with over and over again until you start to appreciate the punishment. 

The album ends on an equally dejected but occasionally gentler pair of songs. Hall Of Frozen Heads is the longest deep cut and while it's meandering for sure the dreamier acoustic guitar strumming and wandering refrains are surprisingly compelling despite their disjointedness. The track is also a big lyrical highlight painting fantastical imagery of an imagined world that contrasts harshly with the shockingly mundane reality. Cry Baby is a pretty compelling and gentle conclusion to the record that follows. It almost rocks the album to sleep though I wouldn't describe the sentiment as all that affirming or relaxing. 

But the record isn't always perfect and some of the most reserved moments are the first culprits. Cleaning features fluttery synths hovering over reverbed vocals in a surprisingly sparse space. But the band doesn't do much with it and ultimately the song just feels like an exhale in the tracklist following Greyhound. Gratitude gets off to a tepid start despite being much more present than Cleaning. The only thing that really stands out about ist is a frenetic and unpredictable instrumental bridge. It's a rambunctious moment that goes on further than you'd think, it's just unfortunate that it comes on one of the less interesting tracks. 

Elsewhere the band sometimes can't help but step on their own toes. Spit is so soaked in wiry distortion that it even cuts through the shouted vocals and robs the song of some of its potential intensity. Barking feels like a step back for the band slipping into the garish arena-sized alt-rock of their previous record. Its lyrics do a great job depicting the mental malaise it's wading through, but the triumphant catchiness of its most important moments work against that emotional impact. Also the album features two short and incredibly strange songs called Dead Cat and Dead Internet back to back. They both feel more like interludes than actual songs and strangely sound like something The Voidz would make but neither really clicked with me at all. 

Foxing isn't a perfect album but it's the best the band has sounded in years. For starters, it delivers an intensity and ferocity that has been absent for a long time which goes a long way to contextualizing the record's jagged edges. It also aligns perfectly with the subject matter which feels more grounded and impactful than the band has sounded across their past few albums. What results is an intense and engaging listen that doesn't get everything right, but feels so sloppily spontaneous that it'd almost be weirder if it did. 7.5/10

For more screamo check out my review of Your Arms Are My Cocoon's death of a rabbit