Foy Vance has released another striking single, We Almost Made It, which aches with vulnerability. Hushed and delicate, the song unfolds in bittersweet tones and a beautifully fluent melody over gently rolling drums. As ever, Vance’s vocal performance is outstanding, full of character and weary, confessional intimacy; his voice is immediately captivating as he sings with soulful honesty. Vance shares: “As with a lot of my songs, there’s a typically Irish yearning in that one. I’ve failed a variety of relationships, and every time it felt like hope was sitting quietly somewhere in the background. It’s that hopeless romantic in me saying, ‘We almost made it. If we just give it one more go, maybe we can make it this time.'”
Halfway through, there’s a pause in the instrumentation and a subtle change in pace following his rising chorus; it draws us in all over again, like a deep intake of breath. Gorgeously crafted and arranged, Vance delivers another beautiful and deeply emotional song, illustrated here by an animation that shows the burden carried.
This is the final single from Vance’s brand new album, The Wake, which has just been released on Rounder Records. The Wake is the completion of Vance’s open-hearted journey through the grieving process. Following the death of his father in 1999, Vance has released a sequence of seven albums through which he has shared his reflections and responses along this revelatory path. Produced by Ethan Johns (Paul McCartney, Ray LaMontagne and many others), the album is at once sorrowful but also full of healing and hope. Foy Vance has written many remarkable songs, steeped in fragility and humanity, but this collection may be his most meaningful, revealing work yet. Do check it out.
