4 out of 5

Label: Kill Rock Stars

Produced by: John Goodmanson

This arrives with snark and a smile, capturing you via Bella Vanek’s ability to swing between a disaffected drawl, poppy sing-song, and a brittle yelp; the way the band leverages 90s alternative hooks a la That Dog for bite-sized punky ear worms. Bella’s lyrics drop four-letter bombs with charm but also purpose; what might otherwise be eyerolling fuck-offs to the maaaan take on an extra layering of narrative – self-assessment and criticism; social commentary; the bitter retort of someone recognizing their youth while having important things they need to say and be heard. Vixen almost perfectly balances all of this: you’re kind of laughing through some of the high school-coded narratives (Bad Kid; Breakfast) where we’re fighting against our parents, but then you’ve gotta combine that with the brutal honesty of the same, and how that stacks with songs about bi-polar disorder (BPD), or more frustrating realities about having tits and walking through the world – or even just being young when people are willing to take advantage of that.

That ‘almost’ perfection is by no means for lack of effort: Vixen is a marvelous project, start to finish; nothing is phoned in, and it’s almost punishing how effectively Bella writes, equally, in these silly and serious worlds, and how well the group maps that to endless, endless hooks. You’re damned to have a big chunk of this album stuck in your head after a single listen.

But: this is an evolution of Foxx Bodies’ sound, past a more Ramones-y or surf-y start on their debut, and when tracks on the album’s second half bring that forward again, it’s not that the tracks aren’t good, but it slightly offsets the vibe of the album on the whole – sing-song alternative and chanting punk rock may seem like pretty close bedfellows, and they are, but perhaps it’s that they conjure different flavors of nostalgia that, for me at least, had me associating slightly different feelings with the songs as well. This shift is also followed by two of the most sincere songs on the album: the spoken word narrative of the title track, and the gentle, barebones closer, ‘Anthem.’ – I think maybe starting with the comparatively “simple” punk of Foxx’s former sound, then transitioning to the 90s nods, then getting to these final tunes would have presented a kind of growth from start to finish.

I accept this is likely just my association with these genre nuances, but it prevents me from heart-swooned immersion the whole way through. It absolutely does not prevent this from being an amazing record, though, with literally every song a winner in one form or another.