October 30th, 2015 
Drew Caruso 
A little over a year ago, I interviewed Foxing while on tour supporting their fantastic debut LP, The Albatross. Filled with energy and an upsurge of fans, the band grew larger and larger, high enough to find their sophomore LP, Dealer, one of the most anticipated of 2015.
With Dealer, the band could have done many things. They could have continued with the high energy seen on The Albatross, something that would have seemed “easy,” or the “right fit” for the band at that point in their career. I am happy to say that Dealer is none of this, but instead is an experimental investigate journey into compositions and landscapes the band has had brewing beneath them.
Dealer is a massive record in terms of content. While most things are dialed back sonically, thematically and emotionally, the album is as heavy as the band has ever been. Bringing in huge instrumentation, creating layers upon layers, Foxing built worlds in which the listener lives in, following unseen paths the band decides to take them on.
From the opening “Weave,” we see the band leaving The Albatross behind, with even lyrical nods to their momentous move forward. Starting simply, the track grows into a massive piece that showcases the band’s use of conscious restraint, making each moment, each note, as important as the last. With vocals clearer and sung with higher purpose than before, everything falls right into place.
Dealer is excitedly not an entirely guitar-centric record, tracks like “Night Channels”—which features wonderfully beautiful piano—and “Winding Cloth” focus on other means to elevate the work. When the band does have glimpses of their eccentric, louder moments, as before they are contained to explode at just the right moments, and sure to not overstay their welcome. Tracks like “The Magdalene,” “Eiffel” and “Glass Coughs” feature moments of vocalist Conner Murphy yelling with exceptional control, soaring with the rest of the band with sonic bliss.
A lot of the heightened beauty of the weight of the record is felt through guitarists Eric Hudson and Ricky Sampson, featuring beautiful guitars that reverberate strongly, but a lot of the “unseen” but “felt” weight of the record’s best grooves are due to Josh Coll’s bass lines jammed perfectly with Jon Hellwig’s restrained, but tight and intricate drums. Experience the chorus of “Glass Coughs” to feel what I am talking about.
With Dealer Foxing not only show themselves as one of the stronger bands in the scene, but raise themselves into new fields of sound, making Dealer the kind of record listeners will feel the importance of more heavily with the passage of time.
Foxing is a band, and surely one day they won’t be a band, as they say, but Dealer will certainly resonate indefinitely.
SCORE: 9.5/10
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