We first featured the music of Eva Foote last summer, when we reviewed her debut album Sparrow & Stone, which we described as, “one of those releases that breaks over you slowly… grow[ing] in depth with each spin… detailing an existence tough and sad yet infused with an insistent beauty, a sense of wonder and joy”.
The Montreal-based (Foote is a student at National Theatre School), Edmonton-native is back with a brand new album of tunes written during a sometimes-lonely first year of college. The album follows a similar pattern to her debut, folk- and country-influenced songs that were created in response to being a long way from home. As she explained to the Edmonton Journal, “If I’m sad in Edmonton there’s at least an emotional confine imposed on it, because it’s familiar. In Montreal there’s nothing familiar, nothing to ground me or remind me of who I am. It was disorienting being sad far away rather than feeling sad in Edmonton”.
This feeling is immediately apparent on opening track ‘Funeral Walking’, a slice of country-tinged folk infused with something slightly wistful, as Foote’s vocals tell of mistakes in love. The music on second track ‘Top Floor’ is deceptively perky, the lyrics painting an altogether more reflective picture. “You believe in magic, you believe in ghosts”, Foote sings, “do you believe that you’re still living if no-one knows?” There’s a sassy country lilt on ‘Throwing Roses’, a track that’s reminiscent of the more upbeat Samantha Crain songs. Foote takes the opportunity to let loose on her vocals, singing of somone left behind in he told hometown.
“We’re strangers now
walking down different streets in different towns
and the distance between
love and loss seem so similar
to that between you and me”
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‘Harder to Feel You’ is slightly darker than previous tracks, spacious percussion and wisps of guitar giving the track a twilit feel, while there’s a Hip Hatchet vibe on ‘Sorry/Thank You’, with its warm country-flecked instrumentation. The lyrics deal in confusion and self-doubt, and in the healing power of having someone close by to offer support. Finally we have ‘Trying To’, a song about trying to get over that special someone, like a distillation of decades of heartbroken but defiant country songs.
“Lover
I wrote this to tell you
I haven’t given up on you
but I’m trying to”
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Funeral Walking is out now and you can grab it from the Eva Foote Bandcamp page.