BLACK FOXXES RETURN WITH SOMBRE NEW RELEASE ‘I CAN’T BE LEFT ALONE WITH IT’

SINGLE REVIEW | BLACK FOXXES – I CAN’T BE LEFT ALONE WITH IT by Ollie Hayman 5/5

After their huge kickstarter success for their 4th album “The Haar”, Black Foxxes first single from it is the 6 minute 15 second “I Can’t Be Left Alone With It”.

Since first seeing them in their birthplace of Exeter supporting Deaf Havana, they’ve been on a crazy rise, seeing them complete two album cycles and releasing one of the songs of the decade (‘Badlands‘) it’s safe to say I was excited when they released information regarding “The Haar” – and of course I contributed to the kickstarter!

Black Foxxes are definitely not a band for everyone. It definitely is a musical style that needs to be honed in on, and not just generalised. Black Foxxes can go to heavy rock to something as this song, which is a full on piano and violin based song, with some very light drums.

Mark Holley’s (lead singer) voice in this song is just truly incredible. The consistent high pitched singing is something we don’t see in any of the other albums of theirs, but it adds to the raw emotion of the song. The orchestral elements also really add to this emotion that is being portrayed, with the violin and piano working in tangent in a beautiful instrumental chorus.

Black Foxxes are known in their scene for their longer songs, which although some may feel as though they’re just drawn out, they’re actually super unique in their own ways. The way they’re composed is just something that really makes you feel their music, instead of just being an idle listener. It’s something that really drew me into the band, as I’m a sucker for picking apart songs and really deep diving into lyrics especially.

“Watching as the words flood in / Feels like endless toxic sweat / Blame it on the other thing” is such a great start to the song. It creates this sense of unknowing on the listener, leaving them thinking what “the other thing” is meant to be. It’s also quite a chaotic set of lines, using words such as “flood” and “endless” shows us that whatever Mark is feeling or thinking, it’s always there, it doesn’t go away.

The bridge of the song is a total break from the rest of the song, creating a sense of failure in a way. The lyrics “I’m falling down / and descend to your knees” not only shows that he is failing, but he’s also dragging others down who could be begging to stop, for some sort of way out. The song in general is a song “about the power and weight our words hold when we talk to ourselves negatively”. It is a song about mental health, and how we should look after ourselves more.

I don’t think an email I just received from the Black Foxxes mailing list sums it up any better. It’s described as “best enjoyed at sunrise with a black coffee, on an overnight flight, or at dusk with a glass of wine. Preferably with no distractions”. Sums it up so well. Listening to this song at midnight as soon as it was released with no distractions was super powerful, and I definitely cannot wait for the rest of the album to drop!