'Breath, Blood and Bone' EP by Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes

As mentioned in my review of the Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes' upcoming single "Four Thousand Weeks", it's actually due out on Friday, the same day as its parent release their ‘Breath, Blood and Bone' EP. Given the quality & emotional wallop of their music, the prudent course of action seemed to be to give them each their own review.

Since "Four Thousand Weeks", "Summer's Secrets" and "Keep Running" have each had their individual moment in the ‘Hot Music Live' spotlight, this article will, for the main, focus on the three other songs: "A Date With Density", "Dead End" and the title track.

However before doing that, I'd like to pick up where I left the previous article: some EPs and albums are collections of songs, others have unifying themes or concepts and therefore since the latter applies here, we need to consider the whole as well as the component parts & their sum.

‘Breath, Blood and Bone' seems to be a concept EP (have I ever written about one before?) made up of "themes of mortality, connection, and the beauty found in impermanence". So that needs keeping in mind especially when casting one's mind back to the individual songs already released as singles. They consider it their most ambitious work to date & I can understand why.

Credit are due to James Odd Fox for recording, production and engineering at Woodworm Studios  and Volt Per Octave Studios, Andy "Hippy" Baldwin at Metropolis for mastering and to Mark Stevens and Guy Fletcher for brass and mandolin in addition to Liam (vocals & guitar), Rebecca (violin and vocals), Matt (bass and vocals), James (guitar) and Diz (drums and percussion).

I tend to go on, when talking about Odd Fox music to state its impact on hearts, feet & minds. You can take that as read again here by the way. They have an instinct for what values are "right" and benevolent and equally to the factors which compel dancing. However they are also a most thoughtful band who often speak of the passionate debates at band meetings, trying to make sense of a flawed world, how it might be made better & how they can write songs about that.

Consequently, the sequencing here was given much consideration & while many bands go out on a high with their final track, as I said last time, they finish with the gentler "Four Thousand Weeks". This decision was made as they felt that it tied the themes together and that "where "Summer's Secrets" roared with defiance, "Four Thousand Weeks" smiles knowingly, the sound of acceptance, gratitude, and the quiet courage to keep singing as the year draws to a close.

The EP even has it's own subtitle: "A Six-Track Folk-Rock Journey Through Survival, Connection and the Marks We Leave Behind" which more than hints at the philosophical profundities in store as does the title & consequent artwork which "…..draws from the oldest art in the world, a red hand stencilled on the wall of a prehistoric cave, a symbol of our shared need to make change and be remembered".

Does passion communicate more potently in the blazing tracks or the slow burners? Well that's for you to judge but I think it does it in different ways & in conjunction offers powerful dynamics: another area the Odd Foxes excel in. This is a band with an interest in physics after all: note the song about density.

And they truly care. The Odd Foxes are precisely those sort of musicians who end up arrested and persecuted under oppressive regimes because they insist on telling the truth and inspiring resistance.

So what of the three songs I promised to tell you about? Well to start with, we've just outlined the spectrum of approaches above so you might say that they fit into that in various positions between the two extremes. And that's fair comment.

"Four Thousand Weeks" clocks in at just over three minutes, but all the others are noticeably longer and generally provide the band with their trademark moves into developing the tunes & providing emphasis: as well as demonstrating what great players they are. The solos are less expressions of indulgence & more of liberation as they fly off in glee at what they've made.

"A Date With Density" (the pun being so compelling that the track actually appeared as "Destiny" in a couple of contexts online initially) is perhaps both the most overtly "rock" in a folk rock way & the most Celtic. Yet it could be said to be the "heaviest" in its lyrics which certainly tend to both the poetic and the apocalyptic: I imagine each listener will respond to the vivid imagery in their own personal subjective fashion. But it isn't capable of leaving them untouched.

"Breath, Blood & Bone" is up there with "Keep Running" as the lengthiest cut and sits closest to "Four Thousand Weeks" in regards to being nearer to the ballad form. This is a big philosophical one, urging taking big picture perspectives and forging connection.

"Dead End" is another rocking tune if a little more English than Celtic and hence provides a sonic link in what is actually a rather neat progression of tone & style. It provides the most overly combative lyric on the EP: frankly it wouldn't be a true LVOF record without a call to arms would it?

Much as I applaud the thought that's gone into the EP, I wonder how much they intended this progressive effect? I suspect that they wrote each song authentically on its own merits and then sequenced them (and arranged them) with care: to think otherwise implies a sense of fitting tracks into a format which might compromise their integrity & I just don't hear that.

As these days songs come out in single form far more often than in collections, I find my capacity to process them has shifted: on one hand I can drill right down into each one in greater detail: on the other, I can get emotional overload trying to deal with whole albums of great songs. EPs necessarily fall somewhere in between but most tend to be shorter than the half dozen here and I'll be candid: ‘Breath, Blood and Bone' asks a lot of a listener. You gain much by playing it through as they so obviously desire you to do, but I'd understand it if, after doing that, you needed a bit of a lie down in a darkened room to realign yourself.

It's that three-fold attack which leaves you no escape from the intensity. You might start just getting very excited by the music, or you may experience it first live & be compelled to dance: sooner or later the wisdom of the lyrics will have you saying to yourself "yes: of course: I wish I'd thought of saying that".

Liam Vincent and the Odd Foxes seem to think its their best work & it's definitely one of the most compelling releases of 2025: that said I can't wait to hear it played live when I bet it will manifest yet more dimensions: please don't forget that they will be launching the records on Friday 5th December at The Queen's Hall in Nuneaton alongside Greenman Rising.

They don't like the way the world is going & nor do I day. In ‘Breath, Blood and Bone' they not only rail against this but even better offer alternative solutions: that cannot be underestimated. Certain forces will loath and fear it with reason. Good.