Four years used to be a lifetime in the music business. The Beatles were releasing albums every three months. Though it’s taken four years for Chloe Foy to offer Complete Fool, it was worth the wait. This is a very different release from Where Shall We Begin. In place of introspection and grief, she presents a treatise on relationships, ranging from euphoria to vulnerability, with a wealth of strings to magnify moments and just a touch of whimsy for good measure.
The chorus of Foys that open ‘Complete Fool’ establish a sense of perfection that clearly cannot last, yet there is still a sense of glory to the moment. As the massed voices fade away, she sings, “I looked one morning/ I gave you my bed/ you wrote the pages/ and I lost my head.” In that moment there is a sense of perfection that will eventually fade. Bass and guitar establish a pattern as slide guitars and synths embellish the music.
This is a more confident Foy, conscious and content, despite the struggles that come with loving another. ‘I Tried So Hard to Disappear’ opens with the sound of a guitar that could be from a Sandy Denny track. The chorus, “Whose fault was it that you lost this time/ Whose fault was it that you gave your mind/ No respite and no comfort to your call.” Examining a relationship is never easy, yet there’s a sense of sympathy to the strings, even as the arrangement brings out all manner of other problems. No name calling, no blame, just a woman trying to look back without anger.
Bolder than before, Foy exhibits a sense of confidence as she and Harry Fausing Smith create arrangements that transform tracks, taking risks and stepping outside everyday patterns and practices to fully explore the album’s themes. Between balancing ambitions and priorities, figuring the actual cost of long-term relationships and questioning whether parts of ourselves are lost when we fall in love, they have made an album of depth and maturity.
Time and tides are eternal. Love often is not. As Chloe Foy examines these moments on Complete Fool, she realises that she is transformed by it all. There is a magic to every second, and when it is gone looking back does not always reveal what was lacking. She revels in its beauty and mourns it’s passing, but at the end of the day the only choice is to keep looking. The search is everything and worth every passing second. She is definitely not a fool.