Skip to main content

Foxwarren: Foxwarren Album Review | Pitchfork


,

Download New Movie



For Canadian singer/songwriter Andy Shauf, solo success meant putting band life on a brief hold. Whether narrating the macabre end to an unfaithful relationship or house-party antics gone horribly wrong, Shauf has diligently refined his storytelling during the last decade on a series of albums under his own name. All the while, he’s also performed alongside hometown pals Dallas Bryson and brothers Darryl and Avery Kissick as Foxwarren. After releasing 2016’s self-produced, self-arranged The Party on Anti-, Shauf has pulled the band along for the record deal via Foxwarren’s self-titled debut. From the music’s mild temperament to its orchestral flourishes, there are similarities to Shauf’s solo work. But Foxwarren invest more in lyrical ambiguity than storyboard form, a sense they match with wondrously spacious sounds. These songs reflect the band’s familial bond, radiating warmth like a campfire.


Foxwarren’s 10 tracks range in tone from brooding Elliott Smith-like ballads to Paul McCartney ditties. As a whole, though, they fixate on the dream realm, with the shimmer of warped synths and eerie vocals suggesting a distant surrealism. Sturdy numbers like “Everything Apart” and “Lost on You” support low-ringing strings and wistful steel guitar that afford a luminescent touch, like noticing the glittering grain of concrete beneath streetlights.


“Oh patient day, bring the idle night/Do we live with it if we close our eyes,” Shauf sings during “Lost on You,” his voice a cushioning croon, as he wonders if a piece of his broken heart still remains with a past lover. This poignant bit of dream-like escapism ends with a hollow, reverberating synth, encapsulating the feeling of being lost in a tenebrous space. The album’s centerpiece, it exemplifies the conflicting interpretations of dreams, captured elsewhere by the glum minor chords of “Lost in a Dream” and the finger-plucked sunniness of “Fall Into a Dream.” One suggests a doomed consciousness, the other whimsical spontaneity. Both entail a sense of self-erasure, whether it means asking to be forgotten or accepting a helpless state.


Loss permeates Foxwarren, actively and passively. On “Sunset Canyon,” Shauf’s gentle vocals give day drinking and a “sunset cigarette” a haunting languor. He searches for answers (“Could I find myself on the other end/Of my cigarette half-lit?”) but falls back into hopelessness: “See it flicker ’til it falls apart.” On the standout “Everything Apart,” Shauf looks for “someone who can keep it all away.” Avery Kissick’s tightly kept drums, which kick with the persistence of a long-distance runner, lead the search, while Darryl Kissick’s bass urgently ticks away the time. Shauf’s friends help him investigate his darkest emotional corners.


Even though Foxwarren come from a place of companionship, their debut navigates isolation and escape. There’s always a pull away from the physical world here, away from company and toward deterrence. Still, these songs suggest the continuous struggle to be comforted, and Shauf finds himself stronger in the company of others. Even in the detail of lonesome battles, Foxwarren’s kinship and warmth persist.






3D song download download

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Say, can you hear” by Men I Trust Review

, Download New Movie The Montreal dream pop trio Men I Trust make such warm, delicately twee bops, a single spin will make you want to buy gingham. But don’t be fooled: Beneath the surface of their sepia-toned, blissed-out sound are sharp, biting lyrics. “Say, can you hear,” the lead single from their forthcoming first album with frontwoman Emma Proulx, Oncle Jazz, celebrates the power of observation. “You’re self absorbed, raving about your cryptic ways,” Proulx sings nonchalantly over a burst of vintage synths that sound like organs and bright, reverberant guitar. Proulx’s observations only get more cutting from there, as she notes how her subject walks through life with a ceaseless air of narcissism: “Waiting for the world to bend around you,” she sings with cool detachment in the refrain. The self-absorption comes across as chilling, and when met with the song’s perfectly chipper melody, “Say, can you hear” becomes jangle-pop fit for a David Lynch film. 3D song download download
Post a Comment
Read more

XXX: Language Album Review | Pitchfork

, Download New Movie Hip-hop in South Korea has made it over to the mainstream, partly due to the massively popular music competition show “ Show Me the Money ,” which is like is like “X-Factor” with more hypebeasts in bucket hats. As the reality TV program has gained popularity, major Korean record labels have become more willing to invest in burgeoning rap stars instead of the typical idol or group. XXX’s Kim Ximya, who raps on top of production by the duo’s other half FRNK, has suggested that the commercialism of Korean rap has killed the authenticity of the genre, as it increasingly mirrors the formulaic nature of K-pop. “For most of the Korean rapper population, I feel they did not write about what they actually felt or what they were actually doing,” Kim said in an interview with Billboard . “They were making music they thought people would like to hear.” On their debut album Language , XXX present themselves as the alternative to the sanitized, hyper-glossy rap music typically p...
Post a Comment
Read more