Foxwarren – ‘2’ album review: a sampledelic journey through cinema’s golden age
THE SKINNY: Right then, who had a sample-heavy, hip-hop-inspired comeback album from Foxwarren on their 2025 bingo card? No, me neither, but it’s what we’ve been given, and the world is a marginally better place for it. The Andy Shauf-fronted project has been absent since their 2018 debut, which provided us with plaintive and delicate indie folk in a similar vein to his solo work. The follow-up, while still maintaining elements of their last effort, is a far more unusual beast.
For the most part, the mellow breeziness of Shauf’s records such as The Party and Norm is present, but the band have chosen to embellish the record not with his usual lavish arrangements, but largely with samples from old film scores, both in a musical sense and with chopped-up dialogue. While this approach was adopted by the group due to the constraint of working on the record individually and remotely, the way they’ve assembled their parts and tied them together feels totally organic and unforced.
With all of these new elements coming into play and an overall bouncier feel, we’re treated to a more psychedelic and dreamlike affair that courses through 15 songs and captures a range of moods. The hip-hop influence doesn’t mean that we’re getting Shauf spitting bars, nor does it mean that there are any token producer tags being slapped on every track, but what it does do is incorporate it in a way that feels tasteful and harmonious alongside their usual style.
Foxwarren have opted to take a means of making an album that most would consider to be inconvenient for most bands, and turned all preconceptions about it on their head by making a record that is beautifully layered and fully considerate of how all of its constituent parts can be assembled. Not only is it an inspired turn of production, but the songwriting manages to be just as excellent as their previous effort was while attempting to avoid rehashing ideas a second time around.
For fans of: MF Doom and classic 1940s cinema, if you can believe that.
A concluding comment from DJ Drama: “LEGENDARY! WE GOT AVERY KISSICK ON THE BEAT AND ANDY SHAUF ON THE MIC TOO! ALL THE WAY FROM SASKATCHEWAN! FOXWARREN 2 LET’S GET IT!”
2 track by track:
Release Date: May 30th | Producer: Andy Shauf | Label: ANTI-
‘Dance’: A soft and lilting piano ditty that feels typical of Shauf’s solo material, but backed by a few gorgeous cinematic samples that have strings and flutes gliding over the top. His vocals are as feather-light as ever, but when they’re backed by the harmonies of the rest of the band, they’re somehow even more gorgeous. [4/5]
‘Sleeping’: The samples continue, but the beat is bizarrely informed by hip-hop in a way that feels alien for a band usually so rooted in folk and Americana styles. The production on the album is already proving itself to be the masterstroke that holds everything together, and is frankly an inspired approach. [4/5]
‘Say It’: This track, being one of only two on the record that pass the four-minute mark, feels like the most obvious hit single on the record, for how it feels fleshed out by comparison to the rest of the songs that breeze by in a flash. Unexpected chord changes, a Paul McCartney-esque muted bassline and distorted guitar that crops up halfway through add to the ever-growing list of minute details that this album has to offer, and we’re only one-fifth of the way through. [4.5/5]
‘Listen2me’: A rock and roll stomper up next, and it’s a whole lot of fun to hear the band let their hair down in this way, considering how reserved and introspective things can be on other tracks. The coda with heavy riffs and dissonant strings is a bit jarring at first, but boy, is it a stellar payoff. [4/5]
‘QuiteAlot2’: A brief interlude which uses more film dialogue samples, keeping the overarching themes moving along. [n/a]
‘Strange’: Another track that could easily be an abstract hip-hop cut if it were being rapped over, but instead we’ve got the dulcet tones of Shauf over a skittish drum beat and an unusual orchestral loop. It’s remarkable that this album works as a concept alone, and even more that it’s a Foxwarren record. [4/5]
‘Havana’: Another interlude, but more musically focused rather than leaning into spoken word samples. It’s pretty, but ethereal at the same time, as though you’re floating your way through hazy memories of a film you watched during childhood. [3.5/5]
‘Yvonne’: Possibly the most conventional and Shaufian song on the album, but besides the field recordings of the seagulls, we don’t get much in the way of the samples that have been so prevalent throughout the rest of the album. It would probably be far more effective outside of the context of the album, but coming in the centre of an album that has so many additional elements in the production, it’s a bit of an outlier. [3.5/5]
‘Deadhead’: Similarly to ‘Listen2me’, this song is characterised by a countrified rock and roll riff, and is one of the most unabashedly vibrant songs on the record. That is, until the throbbing synth bass comes in in the outro and fades into a nightmarish organ sample. Truly captures all of the weirdness of the record. [4.5/5]
‘True’: The third and final interlude track – could’ve developed into something greater, but they stopped it dead in its tracks before it had the opportunity. [3.5/5]
‘Round&round’: I can’t help but smile when these jagged yet jaunty guitar riffs come in. It’s a wonderful contrast with the taut, syncopated drum patterns and luscious string samples, and adds that extra bit of bounce to every song it features. [4/5]
‘Dress’: There’s an ominous feel to the string samples here, and while it’s not an overt dive into the darkness, if this was indeed a film soundtrack, this would be accompanying a tense moment where our protagonist faces a dilemma of sorts and has to make a crucial decision that impacts the outcome of the plot. [4/5]
‘Wings’: With a groovable beat behind it, a funky-as-heck bassline and a sample that doesn’t seem to be looping correctly, this is the point on the record where Foxwarren enter the nostalgic world of late-2000s chillwave worship. Foxwarren on the dancefloor, now how about that? [4.5/5]
‘Serious’: We’ve got a little waltzing rhythm going on here, and another slightly ominous aura filling the song. The organ and bassline don’t always seem to lead to the right places in the early stages of the song, and then the low humming drones at the end take an otherwise chipper record down a haunting route. [3.5/5]
‘Again&’: A short song that again could’ve been fleshed out further, but it’s a suitable enough cap on proceedings. Not just a pretty album, but a pretty peculiar one. [3.5/5]
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