You don't read about bands from Barrie, Ontario very often, but now you will, because I'm going to tell you about Fox Jaws. These six friends from what Torontonians have the gall to call "Northern Ontario" make a lot of pretty noise, and touch on a lot of different genres.
The band was originally known as Doris Day, and they were probably smart to change that, because if they ever got huge that would probably have resulted in some expensive and annoying legal troubles. And there's the potential here -- there's something of Canadian mega-groups Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene to be found on the band's debut full-length, in the drama and the slightly unhingedness, respectively. I know it's tired to trot out those comparisons, as if these are the only two Canadian bands with more than four members -- indeed, bands barely contained by the space afforded by small club stages seem to be quite in vogue these days -- but they come to mind pretty quickly. That's not to say that Fox Jaws are aping the sound of those two outfits, just that they, too, often manage to capture the something special that makes listeners take notice.
Fox Jaws know how to hold the momentum on a track, mixing up the pace and coming in and out without making things crazy or losing their way. There's a pop sensibility running throughout these eleven tracks making up Goodbye Doris that serves them well.
Despite the variation in sounds, Fox Jaws hold it all together well; these songs play like they make sense together. Still, as always, there are standouts. The previously-mentioned "Karmonica" grabs hold pretty quickly; after easing you in with some gentle guitar, "Couple of Pops" does the same. The former track has something in it that reminds me a bit of Neil Young, if Neil ceded the foreground to an appealingly raspy-voiced female singer and upped the cacophony quotient in his tracks. "Quarantine Girl" has the male vocals at the front; these songs switch back and forth, between and within them, but Carleigh Aikins and Daniel Allen play against each other well throughout.
This in, on the whole, a fun album to listen to; the enthusiasm of the band members is infectious. But it does take a few darker tunes. "Hide & Seek" has something in the guitar that is a bit more melancholy and has a tinge of 90s alt-rock crunch, while the vocals on the verses of "Swaying Tuesdays" are muffled and held back just a little, like they're about to burst forward with rage. Strong percussion drives "Warm Winter Coats" along, and Aikins' voice quavers just a little bit with fragility before the chorus busts out.
But that's just cutting the album into its parts; on the whole, it works, and that's what's most important. So, you should listen to Goodbye Doris. And I should go see Fox Jaws live.
SCORE: 8.1
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