"Summer's Secrets" by Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes

I'm glad to be able to share with you on this quintessentially autumnal day, news of the new Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes single: it's called "Summer's Secrets" and comes out on Friday. It's a follow up to last month's very well received "Keep Running" but also it casts its eye forwards towards their new six song EP ‘Breath, Blood and Bone' which should be with us before the turn of the year.

'Ah', the casual reader may think on looking at the title, 'the Odd Foxes have dimmed their fire: this sounds like some sort of romantic track'. Such a person would of course be guilty of poor judgement & lack of faith in this fiery five piece. These people don't tread such roads: they only know the highway to liberation.

Of course it's true to say that they also compel you to listen to their songs by not giving away too many hints as to the content in the titles: fair enough. Otherwise they'd be putting out plenty of songs called "We're Really Furious About This And Want To Bring It Forcibly To Your Attention" or similar.

Not only does the Odd-Foxometer remain stuck at its highest intensity setting with "Summer's Secrets" but they consider it to be "their most ambitious work to date": which considering that they are not only a band who care a great deal but also have tremendous musical skills and experience, is quite a self assessment.

I see what they mean though. The Odd Foxes don't mince their messages: they obviously don't want to run any risk of people misunderstanding them. However this does not translate into one dimensional polemics.

They are articulate writers both lyrically & musically and if one had to focus in on one aspect of their appeal & hence the most effective way they put their ideas across, it's that they draw you into the beating heart of the songs so you become part of a sense of communal experience and frankly they get their audiences dancing. During which they absorb the words.

This articulacy is probably indeed at its apogee (to date) here: there is a basic premise to the song but its developed and enhanced by allusions and detailed expositions. And that's just the words. You might say much the same of the accompaniment.

To start with the premise: yes summer does play a part and no, this isn't an example of them writing a summer song and not being able to release it until October through things not going right: it's definitely designed for now as it's  "steeped in seasonal change" and in addition  "mortality, and the yearning for freedom from modern constraints". All of which are good subjects to write songs about.

But that's just the jumping off point as it also "conjures a journey of escape: from the grim monotony of a factory floor to the blaze of autumnal forests, where human resilience meets nature's permanence".

Quite a lot for just one song, though it does extend to over five minutes in order to achieve all those ends.

The music tends towards the keywords of "blaze", "escape" and "freedom" and thankfully leaves us to picture for ourselves any sense of grim monotony.

The quality of the playing is superb of course but I honestly can't ignore the sense that it's not just about five great players but about their own community: you sense how much they share the values & enjoy playing as a band. Frankly you get this even more live and as I said earlier, these are songs to be danced to & inhabited: therefore you'd probably like to know about the single's launch on the same day as its release at The Crew in Nuneaton.

This is an epic in more than its length, building with grace & dignity to a zenith, moving from a sense of never wanting to go back to a place where everything is balanced and everything is connected. It's going to be dubbed an anthem and I can't see what's wrong with that.

That's the big picture but during those minutes there is plenty of space for a myriad of instrumental and vocal touches & details which enhance the lyrics and each of which pushes the uplift up another notch.

The commitment is such that the artwork is also part of the message: it "captures this tension too - a 1995 photograph of Liam as a teenager, guitar in hand, with static crackling on a TV behind him, a snapshot of past and present colliding". You cannot overlook anything here for it all holds significance.

Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes self identify as "Folk-Rock with Heart and Conscience" and that's certainly still the case: however I find it interesting that in addition to citing influences from that world, they are now name checking Bob Vylan too. Their sound comes from a particular place but the ideas transcend genre boundaries: and indeed any cultural ones.

All sorts of institutions, organisations and hegemonies will try and persuade you that popular music is ephemeral and "doesn't matter" (I refer you to Orwell but I could equally cite Spotify or the global record industry. Or most radio stations). So why do the same people run in fear from the songs of certain artists? Certainly Bob Vylan, Kneecap, Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Dolly Mavies have drawn down howls of execration in 2025 from those who have access to nuclear arsenals. Popular music can matter & does matter & Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes epitomise this purely and powerfully.

If, like me, you are in general accord with their philosophy, then there probably isn't much capacity for conversion. However immersing yourself in "Summer's Secrets" will do two things: it will uplift you and it will remind you that however dark the road seems, you are not alone upon it.

Now play the single a few times, find yourself some autumnal woodland, take a walk in it and observe how more positive your thoughts now are.