New Jersey residents Like a fox come with a history of noise. Forming, like Voltron, from myriad of that area’s bands they come together on this debut LP to shift some paradigms, push some envelops and think outside of the box. I’m being churlish here; I wanted to not like this record after reading the press release. I though the singer of “Joe Lean and the etc, etc daddy paid for all this jongs” was the only individual to use the phrase sonic aesthetic, but no. I wanted to be able to say Like a Fox sound like a fox caught in a bear trap.
But they don’t.
And I quite like it.
Also, I had no happy outcome for the fox.
First things first, this is not a classic album, there will be points you may find yourself wondering what they are playing at. But then, I think this might be part of the charm.
Polished to fine shine at the bottom of every song is a solid melody, in fact a gorgeous melody, a shimmering, distilled, folky pearl readying itself to be found. If I were Jilly Goolden, I’d be pontificating on the rich bouquet of The Sins that issues forth with every swirl or glug. Soon I’d be drunk and propositioning the cameraperson, or people, or entire backroom staff.
This is pure late summer afternoon to dusk setting song writing. Each chorus dipped in that wistful nostalgia that make you want to get up and play the whole thing all over again.
‘Almost There’ demonstrates it most effectively, seducing you in with a gentle almost lazy tune before the guitars and vocals, a repeated phrase of “ we’re almost there” (no surprise there), convince you to do one of those long stares into the distance.
Elsewhere ‘ Nobody Knows you’, ‘Kingdom Come’ and ‘Heavy Soothing’ evoke the ghost of The Lightning Seeds but, you know, if they had been any good.
It’s heady without being sickly; that clean, dry yet melodic sound that American bands seem to be able to command at will. Goodness it is a wine review!
It’s partly designed, partly where it finds itself in the mix. The clatter of over fussy instrumentation on some songs hammers down any mawkish emotions that might otherwise rise to the surface.
And that’s the only real problem with this album as a whole. This history of noise has encouraged the sonic palette to be expanded beyond what was necessary. It is annoying, no doubt, but not overly so.
Find a scene, preferably outside, and it will offer a fantastic soundtrack.