Fox Glove
Dead of Winter
(Independent)
3/5
It’s been a big year for Victoria-based alt-folk trio Fox Glove. After releasing their first full-length album, Jessie, earlier in 2019 and having success as a live act, they’re back just in time for the holidays with the release of the three-track EP Dead of Winter.
Fox Glove kicks the EP off with the title track, an original, piano-backed ballad that features beautifully articulated contemporary melodies and harmonies delivered with a haunting chill. On its own, the song doesn’t really belong on a holiday album, but it’s followed by standards “Home for the Holidays” and, more notably, a rendition of Robbie Burns’ timeless “Auld Lang Syne,” which features local string trio Auburn Blind.
Dead of Winter is good but not great. It features wonderful vocals and musicianship, flawless recording and engineering, and a healthy helping of sentimentality, but it’s hard not to ask if we really need another holiday album. It would be shocking if you hear this one again next December.