2

カナディアン・インディーの重鎮ANDY SHAUF（アンディー・シャウフ）が率いるバンドFOXWARREN（フォックスウォーレン）が新作『2』をリリース！

シャウフの幼なじみで親しいコラボレーターでもあるダラス・ブライソン（ギター）、ダリル・キシック（ベース）、エイヴリー・キシック（ドラム）、そしてコリン・ニーリス（マルチインストゥルメンタリスト）が参加した『2』は、フォークからサイケ・ロック、ダウンテンポまで、様々なジャンルを織り交ぜたエクレクティックなサウンドによる作品。

While not a complete renunciation of their 2018 eponymous debut, the second album by Foxwarren -- singer/songwriter Andy Shaufs band with friends from college -- represents a surprising shift in approach. Whereas the debut consisted of a trippy, pastoral indie rock, the follow-up, titled 2, was put together by Shauf after bandmembers, located across four Canadian provinces, collected song ideas and musical fragments in a shared folder. Citing musicians like MF Doom as inspirations, Shauf plugged these ideas and others into a sampler and, along with field recordings and movie clips featuring dialog and score material by the likes of Max Steiner, pieced together, hip-hop style, a primarily melodic sequel that plays a lot like a rap-era mixtape. What remains similar between the bands albums is Shaufs unmistakable warm, tempered vocals and a sense of melancholia that acts like a glue, both across this track list -- 15 songs and interludes that clock in at around 35 minutes -- and the entire output of the project. Sounding very much cobbled together but also maple sweet, it opens with "Dance," an orchestra-injected midtempo contemplation about wanting to dance, with looped piano, light live (-sounding) drums and bass, occasional flute, and a closing fanfare. Its followed by the funkier, breakbeat-adjacent "Sleeping," which credits 1947s Life with Father for its symphonic music samples, alongside movie dialog including the track-opening "Im leaving in the morning, honey, Ill be gone a long time…." The rest of 2 continues in kind, with excursions into the period, stereotypical-Asian-noir-sounding score samples of "Strange" preceding the manipulated orchestra samples of the film-centric "Havana," which in turn leads into one of the most tuneful, solo-Shauf-like entries here, "Yvonne," whose accompaniment includes muffled drums and seagulls. Also on deck are the more classic rock-leaning, relatively upbeat "Deadhead" and the clap-along disco of "Wings." By the arrival of the glitchier closing track, "Again&," 2 has come off as just a bit too haphazard and like editing practice to be fully immersive; however, its bittersweetness and unusual, playful spontaneity are, like Shauf, not without their charms. ~ Marcy Donelson