Foxes’ return with The Kick is one of pure pop joy

I guess you could say it’s a new era for Foxes, aka Louisa Allen. She’s moved away from the more alternative-leaning (if you can even call it that) days of “Youth” and “Body Talk”, now diving headfirst into the clean-cut pop perfection that The Kick serves up. However, this isn’t Allen ‘selling out’ if that’s what you’re thinking. Both “Gentleman” and “Growing On Me” are Allen’s reminder that she’s kept her soul in the album; ensuring we don’t forget what caught our attention all those years ago.

Two of the singles are unsurprisingly some of the highlights on the album, the first being “Sister Ray”. It’s a great choice for the opening track, immediately setting the tone with its anthemic and euphoric writing and production, the main hook immediately recognisable as something to shout while drunk on the dance floor. Same goes for “Dance Magic” – even when its lyrics are lamenting a relationship on its last legs, the notion of letting it all go and feeling free when you dance shines through clear as day.

Each half of the album ends with a relatively sudden shift in pace (“Body Suit” and the contrastingly acoustic “Too Much Colour”), and when you’re consistently bopping along to track after track (which does also risk becoming monotonous, I know) it can be a little jarring rather than the breather they intended. Both tracks are perfectly good songs, but aren’t standout enough to justify the drastic change in tone. More delicacy with track listing could’ve done Allen a few favours – ending the project with a fading whisper instead of the resounding outro of “Sky Love” feels like a missed opportunity.

A surprising little earworm is title track “The Kick”, almost channelling the latest sounds of Laura Mvula as the 80’s inspiration pours out of the mix when the chorus hits you out of nowhere. These references to the 80’s flow through the whole album, but can be found particularly evident on tracks like the infectious “Two Kinds of Silence”, and even in “Potential” as the swinging groove of the bassline resonates as if it’s calling your feet to dance. The cultural revival of the 70’s and 80’s is evidently here for the long run, and The Kick is a great example as to why.

What keeps this album at an 8, sadly, is just that it’s not doing anything that’s changing the game – and I don’t think it’s trying to either. The Kick is a celebration of what we lost and desired to return, with clear choices being made in its production and soundscape to resonate with that. It achieved exactly what it set out to do and did it well, but is it ground-breaking? I suppose that’s the fine line you tread when you’re making pure pop music.

Hopefully The Kick is the last of its kind when it comes to lockdown albums, but fortunately for Foxes, we get to go out and dance to this one.