“I’d burn at the stake to feel you near.”
Since forming in St. Louis in 2011, Foxing have become one of the most acclaimed bands in the modern indie rock scene. Much of this praise is due to both their emotionally charged songwriting reminiscent of classic emo, as well as their penchant for dramatic artistic reinvention from album to album. Foxing are a band that take pride in never remaining stagnant.
And with their new self-titled fifth album, Foxing have taken one of the biggest artistic leaps of their career – one that pays off tremendously with a rich, demanding listen that demands multiple plays.
The band’s previous record, 2021’s Draw Down the Moon, gave their songwriting a widescreen, stadium-ready sheen. While it still retained much of their emotional catharsis, many fans were left longing for the wild experimentation of 2018’s Nearer My God, which blew Foxing’s established sound wide open into an experimental art rock freakout of the best kind.
Thankfully, Foxing delivers on these hopes and then some. Opener “Secret History” lulls the listener into a false sense of tranquility with a lush sample and frontman Conor Murphy’s tender crooning, before exploding into an uncharacteristically intense release, full of distorted riffs and tense screams. It’s a contrast reminiscent of Brand New opening Daisy with the bait and switch of “Vices”, and sets the tone for an album that is full of surprising twists and turns.
“Hell 99” delivers an even more aggressive gut punch as one of the band’s few tracks to feature primarily screamed vocals, with the lyrics tackling a feeling of worthlessness in a consumption-driven modern society. Lead single “Greyhound” is a towering eight-minute epic, beginning with a synth-led slow burn first half before exploding into crescendos of post-rock noise. It’s one of the most conceptually ambitious tracks of their career, and a fitting centerpiece for the record.
Elsewhere, the effortlessly hooky “Barking” is like the band’s take on The Killers, with a heavily groove-driven lead riff and glimmering synths that feel like a throwback to a past era without feeling pastiche. It is a necessary reprieve before the unrestrained freakout of following track “Kentucky McDonald’s”, with the aggression of the earlier tracks returning with a vengeance.
The contrast between these two tracks is a perfect encapsulation of the album as a whole – consistently bold and uncompromising, demanding to be engaged with fully rather than passively listening. Foxing have taken the ethos of Nearer My God to new and breathtaking heights, delivering their greatest body of work to date, and one that is sure to take them to a new level of acclaim in the modern indie scene.
By the time the surprisingly tender piano-driven “Cry Baby” lets the listener down gently to bring the album to a close, Foxing has taken the listener on a truly powerful musical journey, a meditation on dreams, faith and despair that feels cut from the cloth of timeless American songwriters. It is an instant classic that will certainly be one of the finest indie rock albums of the year.
9/10
Foxing is out September 13th as an independent release, and can be pre-ordered here.