Foxing - Draw Down The Moon (August 6, 2021) Album • Page 61

I disagree with the review entirely because these songs are capital T tunes, which is pretty much the biggest zag against a lot of the tunelessness that dominates indie rock right now. AOTY. 5 stars.

 

I look forward to the 9.1 20 year anniversary reissue review.

 

@Drew Beringer is your indie variant still available?

 

Nah it sold last week

 

Yeah, the comparison drawn is absurd and is objectively is nowhere near festival rock.

Also I think negative music reviews in general fall under the "stupid games, stupid prizes" umbrella.

 

^^^its just very hard to listen to this record and not hear a band taking massive swings and then read a review that reduces those swings to “standard festival rock”. Huh?

 

The first thing that came to mind for me when I heard Go Down Together was Passion Pit. I also read an interview where Conor mentioned them as being one of the influences on the album. So it's definitely an apt comparison, lower review score or not.

 

If you're writing an entire album review based off one song, you probably shouldnt be writing that review. I havent heard Passion Pit so idk if they fall under the soulless festival rock umbrella.

 

Pitchfork is whack

 

But I don’t consider Passion Pit “standard festival rock” either. The comparison seems reductive in a different way. Passion Pit is excellent. Feels like they are saying Foxing is no different than some no name trend hopping band playing some side stage at 330.

 

It’s a terribly written review

 

I liked Bialystok definitely at first, but now I’m in the “wow this song is fantastic” phase.

 

Unsurprising to find out this person also did pressure machine, that review was even worse

 

My idea of what constitutes festival rock is probably going to start more fights haha.

 

My thing with the review is that it’s entire thesis statement is about how the album calls back to this very specific kind of “festival” indie rock and I just don’t hear that. Like yeah it’s poppy, yeah there’s influences like Passion Pit, but I would have never heard this record and thought “wow these guys really want to sound like Foals”

 

Passion Pit was so good.

 

If run of the mill “festival rock” bands have all written their own “If I Believed In Love” then I must be really missing out.

 

The review doesn't once mention Conor's coming out either, which is such an important and intrinsic part of this record.

 

I mean the review completely discredits the fact that foxing still sound like foxing, they try and argue that it’s a full on reboot of a completely different sound than they were doing before, which is just incorrect as we in this thread have pointed out multiple moments on nearer my god that clearly hinted at this direction. But even if they are taking influence from the bands name dropped in the review, because at times sure they are, I don’t understand how you could begin to make the argument that what we get in draw down the moon is nothing but a derivative of that sound. To me draw down the moon is extremely progressive and forward thinking, using the palette of big indie rock as a jumping off point for ideas and moments that feel very Foxing to me and nobody else. Also there’s a complete misreading and almost dismissal of Conors subject matter (seriously, all this writer could glean from the lyrics are “will you be there for me?” And I’ll be there for you? that’s just pathetic analysis) and a straight up insult to his, in my opinion, very impressive vocal capabilities that show sincere emotion and not as the writer calls it a “blandly emotional monotone.” This is absolutely a hit job and takes everything a step too far with lazy, barely there analysis and unfair lazy comparisons that don’t hold up under any amount of scrutiny. Writing negative reviews is not an art form, I used to do it regularly, it’s easy as fuck and barely takes any effort, I can’t remember the last time I read an overtly negative piece of critique that was well thought out or made me think about anything on a deeper level. Negative reviews are good for mindless jabs and shallow comparisons. You aren’t doing important work by taking the struggling indie band down a peg. I mean they spend five or six paragraphs complaining about the comparisons to indie rock and blasting Conor for his vocals and lyrics. There’s nothing to say about the musicianship or songwriting, which are phenomenal, the production, which is phenomenal, or really anything besides the two things this writer decided weren’t good enough for them.

 

the lyrical analysis is straight up embarrassing and the worst example of cherry picking to avoid having to scrutinize it any further that I’ve ever seen. I’m not gonna call it straight up bi erasure but it’s straight up bi erasure

 

Yeah I've written one negative review ever and it was reactionary towards an album I was looking forward to for a long time and was initially disappointed by. I regret it and I'm glad it's no longer out there.

 

Finally had a chance to sit down with this. Absolutely love it, I think the only track I'm not super into is Cold Blooded. This band continues to blow my mind. Early favorites are 737, DDTM, Beacons and Together.

 

Just very dismissive and tone-deaf. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's offensive or homophobic to not acknowledge it or anything, but it's close. P4K is usually much better about that kind of thing.

 

the review is fine. I don't feel totally convinced of the writer's point of view (I just feel like the criticism hinges too heavily on one song) and I don't agree with the score at all but it's well written and it puts forward an opinion I know a lot of folks have.

It's definitely not a hit job. if anything it will probably give them more attention than the 7.4 they were likely to get if the written review was glowing.