Foxing

Foxing's "Nearer My God" is their most larger than life song yet (listen)

Foxing recently announced their third album Nearer My God, and we mentioned that the album is a major step up for the band and a significant change in direction from anything they’d done before, but Foxing sorta eased us into their new sound with lead single “Slapstick,” which is one of the more similar songs on Nearer My God to their last album, Dealer. They have now unleashed the title track, which is like no other Foxing song to date. It’s a massive, gradually building indie rocker that sounds ready-made for stadiums. It kinda sounds like it could fit on M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, and it has the same potential to cross over between various music scenes/fanbases the way that album did. With its colossal, instantly addictive hook of “Do you want me at all?”, it might remind you of early Foxing song “Rory” (and its “Why don’t you love me back?” refrain), but Foxing are in much deeper, maturer territory this time around. On this song, singer Conor Murphy admits “I’d sell my soul to be America’s pool boy.” On this song, he talks about “unfollowing my dead friends.” It’s lyrically very heavy stuff, and it’s musically the most accessible and wide-reaching song that Foxing have ever written.

It’s actually almost a miracle that the song even ended up on the album at all. Former Death Cab for Cutie member Chris Walla (who produced the album) told Stereogum that the song “was on the chopping block, and it didn’t feel like anybody was gonna fight for it,” but that he “went to the mat” for it. “The melody was so strong, and the way the song opened up felt so good to me. I kept zeroing in on it as something that had a lot of emotional weight and felt really relatable to me.”

Foxing also released the song not just in the English-language version that it appears in on the album, but also in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. Here’s what Conor Murphy says about the idea to release it in five different languages:

The language idea started as a “wouldn’t it be cool” thing that just kept going. The whole point was to put in a fraction of the effort that most international artists put in. The goal was to show respect and appreciation. Each step was pretty difficult because we wanted to get it as right as possible and my only knowledge outside of English is some high school French. Each of the four foreign languages had its own set of difficulties but, after working with 70ish translators and friends for a few months, we’ve got one song in five tongues.

Listen to all five versions in the visual playlist below.

Foxing are touring in support of the new album, and they recently added two great openers: Ratboys and Kississippi. The tour includes a NYC show on 9/4 at Bowery Ballroom (tickets). All dates are listed below.

Lastly, for an even more in-depth look at Foxing’s new album, the band has launched the Nearer My Pod podcast, which is hosted by Noisey’s Dan Ozzi. Episode one is out now and you can listen here.

Nearer My God drops on August 10 via Triple Crown. You can pre-order it here.

Foxing / Kississippi / Ratboys — 2018 Tour Dates
Aug 26 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
Aug 28 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme (no Ratboys)
Aug 29 – Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch (no Ratboys)
Aug 30 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
Aug 31 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Place
Sept 01 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
Sept 02 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Sept 04 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Sept 05 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Sept 06 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
Sept 07 – Durham, NC @ Motorco
Sept 08 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
Sept 09 – Orlando, FL @ The Social
Sept 11 – Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Sept 12 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda
Sept 14 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Sept 15 – Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Sept 16 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Sept 18 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Troubadour
Sept 19 – San Fran., CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
Sept 21 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne
Sept 22 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Sept 24 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Sept 25 – Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
Sept 27 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
Sept 30 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall