thread of foxing on the occasion of their 2018 extremely warped and fragmented emo album nearer my god

https://t2.genius.com/unsafe/943x0/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2F92a6e0ba17ea7afd67af14aa90ce431a.1000x1000x1.png

i still haven't heard the whole thing but all three singles are remarkable, "slapstick" and "gameshark" in particular are real mutants, while the title track feels like the prettiest possible version of an archers of loaf song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AopbOIH37gs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKNvSNPR-Bs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umMI3u_-C78

There's basically no way this gets topped as the emo record to beat this year imo, all three singles are unreal in their own way. Great depressed-lapsed-catholic lyrics too

I've got it all
I feel the love in suspension
And nearer my god
At hallowed ground, holding hands
Ashing cigarettes on gravestones
Pin photographs on cork boards
Unfollowing my dead friends
Someone's gonna love me

god "gameshark" is so outrageous

thanks bringing this to my attention, these tracks rule so much

I just read this piece which mentions "nine-minute ambient odyssey" Five Cups and Heartbeats "merging swirling house rhythms with atmospheric post-rock guitars" so my excitement is through the roof now

pumped for this

this album rules and weirdly enough what it most reminds me of is if all of Bloc Party's second album ambition actually worked out for them?

ahhhh I want to hear this so bad. 12 more hours!!

Heartbeats is driven by gorgeous strings and beats and then has this like... dark choral breakdown? probably my favourite on the album on first listen

holy fuck 'grand paradise' is amazing

this album rules and weirdly enough what it most reminds me of is if all of Bloc Party's second album ambition actually worked out for them?

― ufo, Thursday, August 9, 2018 8:16 AM (fourteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

perfect pressing play now

holy shit this album is amazing

"heartbeats" is my fav so far, seemingly full of momentum but disintegrating routinely into incongruous string parts

I FEEL LIKE A HOUSEPLANT

really stunned. they even made a borderless bon iver interzone i don't hate on "five cups"

whole thing is so good, mad that they pulled this off

"Heartbeats" is nuts!!

More than any individual tracks, what strikes me most is how dynamic the mixing is - this is a seriously great-sounding album

I keep thinking of Steven Wilson, actually

was really not expecting "Lambert" to lift off like that. too short!

Loving this as well. I think the 3 singles are still the highlights for me but into all of it. "Five Cups" reminds me a bit of "Love Like a Sunset" this bigger more sprawling ambient-y track in the middle of an already adventurous album. Also, would you still call this emo? Feels more in line with 2000's indie than anything. I love it but to me they no longer resemble the midwest Kinsella worship of The Albatross (which is awesome too).

i probably wouldn't at this point no! although "gameshark" is sort of a different kind of emo, atdi and blood brothers axis

apologies to anyone who is mad at my classification of blood bros as emo

I could go with a couple more songs as gonzo as "Gameshark"

other than this album my favorite release of theirs is the Two EP with those gorgeous, glacial remakes

That's a good point, I think i love this because it's pulling from all of that, elements of emo adjacent genre's and straight up like stadium indie sounds. Good call on the ATDI/Blood Brothers comparisons. Sounds a bit like the moments in "My First Kiss at the Public Execution" where they extend the high pitch, and sounds a lot like Cedric on pretty much any Mars Volta song.

Liking Two quite a bit as well. Had not heard these versions before. Thank you.

I keep thinking of Steven Wilson, actually

A bit of that, yeah. Definitely a lot of wounded schoolboy prog happening here.

Listened to this - intriguing stuff. I liked it. Will play a few times and see where it takes me

have had a very difficult time listening to anything but this

but also weirdly i almost can only take half of it at a time. it's a dense 50+ minutes

many of the songs have a moment where they warp thrillingly into a new part and it's always so good (second half of "five cups," string section on "heartbeats," guitar solo on "lich prince," the "oh!" on "slapstick")

sounds like muse

I mean this is a weird comparison maybe but this record feels to me like what would've happened had arcade fire doubled down on neon bible

no it sounds like muse

reminds me of something in the vein of the last the last manch orch or Bn album? Anyway I love it

muse

― na (NA), Monday, August 13, 2018 3:26 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanks

"Wounded schoolboy prog" sounds about right.

So does Muse.

i'm not mad about the comparison but this doesn't sound like any muse record i've ever heard

yeah idk none of this sounds like muse to me, more like brand new by way of wild beasts

I admit I thought of Muse a little on "Gameshark" but Muse have never released anything that successfully nutty. And nothing else on the album evokes them much at all.

yeah I love the all the moments like when the background synth line warps into the guitar solo in Lich Prince and when Lambert suddenly picks up speed

really don't understand the Muse comparisons at all but those high guitar notes on the title track are filling the void left by the still unreleased Wrens album for me

i wish the singer had a little more game, he makes this pretty uninteresting when he's the focus

what a well architected rock record—tension and release, plenty of catharsis, little sonic details (s/o to walla for incredible production work, as always).

don't hear Muse in this at allllll

I'm struggling to get into this because it feels like it should be up my alley but it's just not grabbing me. I don't see this as a weakness of it, but maybe me, or just my mood. I'm gonna keep at it.

i def get hearing limitations in the singing. one song where i'd say his limitations actually kinda add to the intensity of the song is "lich prince". incidentally there are a lot of different vocal approaches in that song

also finally listening to this on good speakers while high and album of the century

lol

muse comparisons may be a side effect of how much this band loves hail to the thief maybe

httt comparison the most generally otm so far imo, obv w some of the drum sounds but also the swaying capaciousness of a lot of it

brad if you're still high you should listen to the Cooper Temple Clause album I bumped their thread for

not enough ambitious rock records in that 53-57 minute sweet spot

Bit in the middle of Slapstick made me think I was listening to Mew

another good comparison point

I FEEL LIKE A HOUSEPLANT

― devvvine, Friday, August 10, 2018 12:19 AM (six days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*furious guitar solo*

PALMS
KEPT
WHITE
HOT
GOLD
RINGS
FOLDED LIKE A

i really loved all is dream in high school though

Same.

Thanks for the heads up on this guy's solo record btw.

they are GREAT live, so much more animated and hyped-up than I was expecting. six people onstage - the only issue was that the sound dwarfed the venue. they might be the only indie band successfully gunning for stadium dynamics. theonly song not improved upon was "Slapstick."

at hallowed ground, holding hands
ashing cigarettes on gravestones
pin photographs on cork boards
unfollowing my dead friends
someone’s gonna love me

y'all were right, this album is awesome. does anyone else get TV On the Radio vibes? cause that's one of the first things that struck me.

I can kinda get that just based on the density

very good again last night, nice tight 50ish minute set, not a moment wasted. they played Roy Orbison's "Crying" over the PA as their intro and it segued wonderfully into "Grand Paradise." major points for throwing in some NMG deep cuts ("Won't Drown," "Lambert"[!!]) and for inspiring a mosh pit for about 90 seconds in the climax of "Gameshark."

Conor is one of the more weirdly compelling vocalists I've seen - he sounds just like on record, but his sound and vibe are like he killed off their real singer and replaced him with a skilled karaoke act. Like their real, more seamless and traditionally strong vocalist is locked in some cellar and he's doing the best he can to cover up the cracks with his weird kitchen-sink enthusiasm. (None of this is meant as a diss - it's endearing and distinctive.)

would love to see them at an outdoor festival. this album is weirdly so summery - I associate it with my trips to play cricket last year. the sun is out now so I might put it on

this is a great review of this album btw, which is threatening to open up it's second half for me

http://www.spectrum-pulse.ca/2018/11/album-review-nearer-my-god-by-foxing.html?m=1

still feel for brevity's sake to have the album end with heartbeats as the note of contrast to the preceding madness would have been ideal, but I am enjoying the last five tracks right now - they would make an excellent companion ep?

haven't gotten to watch this yet but I assume it kills

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/12/731358797/foxing-tiny-desk-concert

saw these lads yesterday in the little forest stage at Latitude and they were grrrrreat! I doubt more than 50 people in the crowd had heard them before but they totally won over the crowd. need to catch a small club-ish show next time - they mentioned after the last 2 euro dates they're off home to do the new record so that may be a while.

this album has really stayed with me

listening now, still bangs

the remixes EP is not bad! the Shinoda remix does what you'd expect, but it works. I wonder if this is a sign of where they might be headed on the next one.

one of the guitar players bought a seven string guitar and is promising / threatening tasteful nu metal influence, lol

is this the best album released in the 2010s decade? i'd say it's in the top 5

vv good and gets better with repeats yeah. so excited for the new album

uuuugh I thought this would be for lp4 news...cmon lads

Here I Wait https://t.co/J5Uc3BinLu

🌒 pic.twitter.com/g8mUeI3GmL

— Foxing (@Foxing) February 26, 2021

teasing something

yesss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHBCMt7xvtA

no idea what Yoni Wolf contributed, but damn.

it's alright but i think i'll like it more in the context of the album, on its own like this it doesn't quite have the weight that this sort of big power-ballad thing seems like it should?

i finally heard this and it rules

"speak with the dead" i mean

absolutely amazing

I like it a lot. I think it'll sound even better in context.

drop that fuckin preorder info lads

the groove change in the second half is so unexpected and amazing

loving the ambition and what this does with rhythm, favourite thing is whatever on earth the drums are doing throughout the first half

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoKo52WVUuo

a goofy comparison to make with this one is avicii

jam

based on the two new songs i'm excited for this to outdo nearer my god

so far i'm intrigued but i think i'll like them both in context of the album

it's out august 6th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iLRDPlp4xM

wasn't expecting them to make an arcade fire song

weird/fun chord progressions on that one, I confess I haven't been straightforwardly bowled over by the new songs like I was "slapstick" or "nearer my god" but I am still cautiously optimistic

based on the twothree new songs i'm excited for this to outdo nearer my god

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, April 15, 2021 7:24 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is like ELO gone through a dark mirror to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOzbmmoWFHM

album of the year

:/

how could you be lukewarm about this one!!!!!

i saw this and i was like "is brad booking tours now?" haha

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/manchester-orchestra-foxing-announce-2021-2022-north-american-tour/

lmao HELL YEAH

huh i should go to the hammerstein show... love hammerstein

how could you be lukewarm about this one!!!!!

I'm listening back to all the singles now, I guess I mainly just don't find their synth/electronic sounds very interesting and the mixing/production hurts my ears at times, I miss the warmth and spaciousness of the previous records (there is a bit of this on "speak with the dead" at least)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn4EBfacdAs

i'm starting a second thread for this album

this one kinda sounds like odd blood-era yeasayer, obviously ymmv

here to give these guys unwieldy thread titles:

DRAW DOWN THE MOON, the 2021 indie rock album serving lindsey buckingham realness, by foxing

Travelling to my first game of the cricket season. Sun's out. Time to stick on NMG