"Four Thousand Weeks" by Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes
Review
The pace is hotting up in the den of Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes. After the passion of lead singles "Summer's Secrets" and "Keep Running" from the forthcoming EP ‘Breath, Blood and Bone' they have decided to put out a third single "Four Thousand Weeks" on the same day as the EP: which is to say December 5th.
The idea behind this song (which I'm giving its own special place in the limelight: look out for a review of the remainder of the EP in the next few days) is one I first encountered with Ian Dury's 1984 album ‘4,000 Weeks' Holiday' and in similar vein references the average human lifespan. While the earlier one was a pretty angry record, the Odd Foxes take as their inspiration the book ‘Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals' and it sits at the more reflective end of their own spectrum (lord knows they have angry songs enough of their own).
In fact part of their reasoning is that with the maelstrom of festivities coming up, something calmer might be a counterpoint for our ears & psyches.
Polemics & blazing with passion may be characteristics of Odd Fox songs (and I do say that of them) but I might also state how intelligent & wise their songs are (I don't see those two terms as synonyms by the way). The more raucous cuts probably start their effects on the feet and then move up to the heart, so one might be excused if in the delirium of the effects, the impact on the head is subsidiary. With "Four Thousand Weeks" you do get a chance to meditate on what they are saying: and it's not like they want you to leave off dancing: it's just that this is more of a stately waltz…. and in the context of a full Foxgig that probably is no bad thing if you want to dance from start to finish without collapsing.
Again: the sentiment is humane: however fed up they get with various shortcomings of flawed and failing societies, it's because they care and can see better ways of doing things: and in this case of living lives.
In their own wise words: the song is "..a wry, warm meditation on time, mortality, and what it means to live well .. and urges listeners to embrace life's fleeting moments with joy and humour." And Rebecca adds "In a world where we're constantly told we're doing it wrong, this song is about celebrating the moment. With only 4000 weeks to live, we might as well dance a bit and sing about it — especially at this time of year."
Well I can relate to that (frankly it homes in on some of my own weaknesses and so I thank them for it) but please don't think I'm describing some sort of facile feel-good philosophising: the Odd Foxes haven't lost their bite and the actual words include such acerbic gems as "we all have to swim in the same filthy sea".
They are smart & kind people and they are also superb musicians who have adapted here to a much gentler sound incorporating a shruti box, bodhrán, and a mandolin played by Guy Fletcher rather than their default instrumentation.
What you can't appreciate as fully (yet) is their decision to close the EP with "Four Thousand Weeks": they have obviously given it plenty of thought and their reasoning is impressive. I'll share that with you when reviewing the full EP since context is all in this matter. But like their debut album ‘Fabric of a Flawed Society', Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes can not only write some potent individual songs but also build more complex and bigger pictures by composing them into broader structures.
They will be launching the records on the same day they come out at The Queen's Hall in Nuneaton alongside Greenman Rising.
