Foxing - Nearer My God (August 10, 2018) Album • Page 55

Saw them do an acoustic in store yesterday, after 2 nights running watching them play with Pianos

Shit's been magical

 

Was at both of the Bush Hall shows too, and all the new songs RIP live! Would've loved to have gone to the in store and had it would've been announced a week earlier I would've stayed down in London for another night.

 

I'm coming around to a lot of songs now. Probably my least favourite Foxing album by a good bit, but I find myself humming the melody of a lot of the songs. Still don't like Gameshark, or Crown Candy. Heartbeats is probably my least favourite apart from those two.

 

To anyone that (loves me at all) doesn't like 'Gameshark', I was on the fence about it until seeing it at the two London shows and it was one of my highlights of their sets both nights. So I'd say wait until see you witness it in a live capacity before writing it off.

 

gameshark is my favorite song on this

 

Gameshark is peng

I would not have realised I drunk ordered this last night if I didn't slam that post down in this thread. Drunk me makes excellent decisions clearly

 

I saw gameshark live and hated it. I'm sure ill eventually like it in some way, but idk if hearing it live is really what locks it in

 

Love Gameshark more each time I listen to it. Whoever said to immerse yourself in it with headphones was dead on.

Anyway, waked and baked and took a walk in the cool breeze this morning to grab some coffee with this in my ears. This is so special. Haven’t been able to listen to Science Fiction since, you know, and this might be filling that void/draw to go back to that record I feel once in awhile.

 

very uninterested in conversations about what people don’t like

 

Trapped In Dillard’s just *really* clicked for and wrecked me, wow.

 

Lol.

 

So yeah uh gameshark is rad hey

 

Loved this little gem from the Noisey interview:

"Also, the first Celine Dion song I ever heard was watching that movie, which is... she’s one of my favorite artists of all time."

 

“Crown Candy” is definitely the weak link here. It’s okay, don’t hate it, think b-siding it would’ve made the flow even better than it already is.

 

Those Noisey and DIY interviews are so good. I love everything about how they think and operate. Favorite part:

“...we just buckled down and said we’re going for it, these are the songs we want to write. If we’re trying to cater to anyone other than ourselves here, this is going to be a half-assed record, a record full of half measures. And we want to go all the way with this, we’d already put so much time into it.”

Relate to this so hard too:

“...that stuff never leaves you even if you don’t believe in it—it really is ingrained in you. Nothing feels as scary to me as Revelations or Biblical references because they were the horror stories I was told as a child. Where you know, what hell is like and what the end of the world will be like, what sin is and where it gets you. So when it comes to telling a scary story, I think the biggest influence I have is that stuff, the Bible, because it’s the scariest book in the world to me. So the idea of heaven in all of that, is it’s kind of this breath of fresh air every once in a while, like, “Oh, at least then they throw you this bone, if you do the right thing it works out, it’s good.” I mean, my personal belief is that heaven and hell are states of mind. But being shock-collared at the gates of it is like seeing happiness right in front of you and being stopped by something, especially yourself.”

 

I wouldn’t want to b side it bc then we wouldn’t have that funky groove section haha

 

Crown candy is “the mistake” equivalent of black mile. Not a great song but it has its place.

 

The production on this is up there with Black Mile. I have to wonder if touring with Manchester Orchestra last year had any effect on the sound of this album.

 

Yup. Not that suicide has ever been something I've considered, but it's something I KNOW, even in a hypothetical incredibly dark future moment, I would never consider. Church scared that right out of me.

 

“Slapstick” and especially “Nearer My God” are even better in the context of the album.

 

I think this is what has hooked me to the album. I could feel the intensity of that concept and context immediately.

As a full-time Youth Pastor, and not-shy-about-it Christian, interviews like this to confirm what I think I'm hearing are absolutely fascinating. Music like this forces me into introspection and drives me to be better at what I do and how I teach.

Any way. "Shock collared at the gates of heaven" is probably my favorite moment on the entire album.

 

Probably why I’m always drawn to religious and biblical imagery — pro, con, neutral — in music, it makes such a strong personal connection.

 

YES absolutely! Made me want to revisit that band for the first time in a while.

 

Grand Paradise is absolutely one of my favorite album openers in a long time.

 

https://music.avclub.com/foxing-s-excellent-elastic-nearer-my-god-leads-this-we-1828193732

Short review, but very good.