Jason Isbell - Foxes in the Snow

With nothing more than words and a 1940s Martin, Jason Isbell is at his most vulnerable, most reflective and most grounded on Foxes in the Snow. Recorded at Electric Lady Studios over the course of five days, it’s poetry paired with simplicity. He “doesn’t say things that [he] don’t mean,” and the result is an overflow of sincerity and honesty.

Woven throughout the eleven-tracks are reminders that when faced with heartbreak, loss and struggle, having the bravery to look it in the eye is the very best we can do. A string of advice across ‘Don’t Be Tough’ could very well be directed towards his daughter, but as it continues throughout the album, those pieces of wisdom feel pretty universal.

In true Isbell deep-cut style, ‘Eileen’ is a personal reflection on a heartbreaking end to a relationship, building on some of the same life lessons heard on 2013’s Southeastern. Whilst the pain tears into both sides, there’s no one to pin the guilt or blame on for bringing about the close. Along with ‘True Believer,’ these tracks are guaranteed to join the ranks of Isbell’s most intimate stories. Although nodding to the real-life moments that led to these songs, the way he explores personal pain is inherently relatable. His vocals soar to make lines as deceptively simple as “the sound of you screaming won’t get out of my head” cut to the core and add salt to the wound.

Meanwhile, ‘Crimson and Clay’ immediately strikes as a matured pairing to the 2011 favourite ‘Alabama Pines.’ It isn’t the first time we’ve heard about Isbell’s struggle to feel at peace in a chaotic world and anxiety-inducing modern society, but he’s grounded in the permanence of the Alabama clay under his fingernails. The political concerns he ruminates over on 2023’s Weathervanes are reflected in the “rebel flags on the highway” and he’s as lost as ever in the big city. Yet, like heading home through those Alabama pines, the red clay reminds him of his roots.

Bookending the album, ‘Wind Behind The Rain’ is perhaps the most quintessentially Isbell song of his career yet. A track tinged with reflective hope and an undying commitment to the very concept of love, he yearns: “I love you like the morning loves the afternoon / Like the prairies love the plains / If you leave me now / I’ll just come running after you / I’ll be the wind behind the rain.” Whether this be naive optimism, the honeymoon beginnings of a new relationship or a dream come true, it’s a love song at its finest.

Foxes in the Snow is conversational, an intimate invitation into the inner thoughts of one of the 21st century’s greatest songwriters. Taking place in a dimly lit wooden house, it’s a confession of love with an occasionally unnerving blues guitar accompaniment. It’s a recognition of the immensity of fleeting love, of having a grasp on your roots and leaning into the pain when you need to.

A seamless fit into a remarkable discography, Foxes in the Snow won’t just go down as one of Isbell’s finest, but one of contemporary songwriting’s finest.

9/10

Jason Isbell's 2025 project, Foxes in the Snow, is available everywhere now via Southeastern Records / Thirty Tigers.

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