Black Foxxes – The Haar

Alternative Rock

63%

 

The Haar feels like a record that’s been a long time coming. I’m fairly sure it’s been a couple of years since Black Foxxes revealed the title and artwork of their crowdfunded fourth album, and they’ve been dropping teasers and tasters of some form or another pretty regularly since then. While they do have a place and a purpose, I’m not a fan of such drawn out releases. As someone who still likes to enjoy an album as one big body of work, hearing half the tracklist months ahead of time, drip fed as a series of singles, tends to kill the hype for me rather than build it.

My one and only taster of this particular record ahead of release was the opening track: ‘I Can’t Be Left Alone With It’. Whether you first heard it months out as a single, or just now pressing play on the full album itself, it’s an enticing and attention grabbing moment. The melancholy piano arrangement, gorgeous strings and expressiveness of rhythm section showcases a new side to the band, one that captures the introspective elegance of A Moon Shaped Pool era Radiohead. Not at all what I was expecting, but the band pull it off so well on this track, and I was eager to hear more such brilliance. 

Moments like that on The Haar are just that; moments. There are more hints of latter day Radiohead on tracks like ‘Turn Out The Lights’ and album highlight ‘Darker Than Light’. The former has hints of their unused Spectre theme towards the end, while the latter fuses layers of electronics with atmospheric Talk Talk-esque sax. Tracks like ‘Where Have You Been’ and ‘Carsaig’ meanwhile are a great showcase of light and shade, letting the quiet, stripped back opening slowly build tension before steering us headfirst into a wall of roaring overdriven guitar and wailing strings to offer release. Pixies pastiche ‘Shakey’ almost pulls off the same trick, but the pay off ends up feeling like too little too late. 

Sadly that’s the issue with the rest of the album in a nutshell – too much build up and not enough pay off. While tracks like ‘Darker Than Light’ can be quiet and introspective while still having a rich and full arrangement, more often the band try to craft an atmosphere by taking things away. A handful of simple ideas stretched too thin to fill all the empty space. While ‘Ha Ha Ha’ does employ some great bass work, there’s little else on offer besides its very simplistic lead riff. ‘Bitcrusher’s Pet Shop Boy spoken word approach saps away all energy and expression (the lyric “there goes my attention” proving very fitting), while album closer ‘In The Image Of Perfections’ attempts to coast by for ten minutes on about three minutes worth of ideas at best. 

Much like the band’s self titled record, this latest release just lacks the spark that defined Black Foxxes’ first couple of albums. I miss hearing the fire in Mark Holley’s vocals, I miss the days when the band could muster memorable hooks. It feels like the band are still trapped in a transitional doldrum, too far removed from the rough around the edges charm of their early work, while also yet to commit wholehearted to the new sounds they toy with here. There are moments on The Haar where the atmosphere is truly hypnotic, and I hold out hope that these nuggets of brilliance can be nurtured in future, but for the most part this latest languid outing sadly is a pretty unrewarding listen.