Foxes - Club Academy, Manchester, 24/10/2015

  by James Lowther

published: 24 / 12 / 2015

intro

Writer James Lowther and photographer Melanie Smith head to the intimate Club Academy in Manchester to catch hotly tipped London songstress Louisa Rose Allen, AKA Foxes as she tours her latest album ‘Better Love’

British pop singer Foxes isn’t really my cup of tea. You’re much more likely to find me listening to less radio-friendly genres of music, and it’s not often that I go to see a band that I have very limited knowledge of. That, however, didn’t stop me from having an absolute blast seeing the London-based songstress live in Manchester. I pretty much missed the entire support act, Izzy Bizu, but from what I could hear the soul singer did a pretty great job of getting the crowd nicely warmed up, and recent single ‘White Tiger’ proved to be a bit of an earworm. So anticipation was high when Foxes finally graced the stage. The stage setup was actually really well done for such an intimate gig. The lighting was simple yet incredibly effective, with a large illuminated FOXES sign in the background. Neat. She kicked things off with ‘Holding Onto Heaven’, an electronic pop song that really was the perfect opener, giving us a good idea of what was in store. The highlight of the gig was probably ‘Clarity’, the Zedd song that Foxes was featured on. Her crowd interaction was particularly good throughout the set, but with ‘Clarity’ she kicked it up a notch, dealing back the instruments and having fun with just her vocals and the crowd. It was surprisingly intimate, and worked well as a more soulful song instead of the high octane Zedd version. We were told that this was probably the last tour that she’d be playing songs from her earlier releases, so clearly her sights are set on playing bigger and better venues in the future - and I can’t say I blame her. She has the kind of sound and personality that I can only liken to Charli XCX, and she’ll be filling out the bigger venues in the not-too-distant future. This was particularly evident as she played some songs from her newest album, with title track ‘Better Love’ proving to be one of the biggest hits of the entire night. The only downside of the show, really, was that by the end you could hear her voice straining. She powered through the set, though, and encore song ‘Let Go For Tonight’ had the entire venue bouncing. All in all it was a hugely enjoyable set, and although the intimate nature of Club Academy worked in her favour, I can definitely see her sound working better on bigger stages, and I hope she goes from strength to strength from here. Set List: Holding Onto Heaven Youth Amazing Feet Don’t Fail Me Now All I Need Photograph Glorious Body Talk Cruel Glorious Medley Clarity Better Love Encore: Let Go for Tonight Photos by Melanie Smith www.mudkissphotograhy.co.uk

Also at Club Academy, Manchester

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