Colorado-based Folk-rock group Foxfeather worked in collaboration with Octave Records to create their debut full-length album, The Nature of Things, released April 22. With intentional lyricism and inventive musicality, songwriters Carly Ricks Smith and Laura Stratton explore everything from love, betrayal, and uncertainty, to female empowerment. Pulling songs from across their catalog, the band explains that “24 Years” was written more than a decade ago while other tracks had been plucked from their live set, ripe and ready for recording. On the other hand, songs like “Too Damn Small,” “Lonely Feeling”, and the album’s title track were written during the pandemic and worked to help shape the album’s ethos. Ricks Smith and Stratton explain that by writing they were able to process “the grief and shock of the pandemic the best way they knew how” and in turn, add “meaning and importance to the full album.” 

Catering to audiophiles everywhere, The Nature of Things was recorded in Direct Stream Digital (DSD), a high-resolution format of recording. “The process is more intricate and sensitive than technology we have been accustomed to working with,” the band explains. “That being said, the product is phenomenal and completely worth the extra time and care.” Taking extra time and care with every facet of the album, the record is undoubtedly well-rounded and thoughtfully weaved. By balancing light and dark, offering natural pacing and being unafraid to traverse across diverse subjects candidly, The Nature of Things is hard to forget. While “The Nature of Things” sounds like poetry, “End of My Rope” sounds like sultry honey-drenched mischief. “24 Years” serves as the album’s cautionary tale while “Fillin’ Me Up” acts as a toe-tapping radio-ready track. Whatever a listener is looking for, they can find here. Transgressing across time and topic, Foxfeather’s album creates a comprehensive look at the true nature of things.