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Jason Isbell has been one of the most consistently great voices in the realm of Country and Americana music for quite a while now. Since his departure from the band Drive-By Truckers in 2007 and formation of his band The 400 Unit in 2009, Isbell has put out multiple albums that could be considered modern classics. Records like Southeastern (2013), Reunions (2020), and his previous record Weathervanes (2023). The most recent run of Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit records has been fantastic, but couldn't quite last forever. In February 2024, it was announced that Isbell had filed for divorce with his now ex-wife and previous member of The 400 Unit, fellow country singer Amanda Shires. This was a shakeup not only for his band but for parts of his back catalog, with many of his most popular songs, such as "Cover Me Up" and "If We Were Vampires," being about his relationship with Shires. So two years after the critical highpoint that was Weathervanes, Isbell is back with his divorce record.
Foxes In The Snow (2025) is Isbell's first album without The 400 Unit since Sirens of the Ditch (2007). Even the two albums he released under just his name in the 2010s, Southeastern (2013) and Something More Than Free (2015), were made with the assistance of the band. On Foxes In The Snow, Isbell strips it down to just himself and an acoustic guitar across all 11 tracks. From a strictly musical perspective, this album is a fantastic showcase of Isbell's chops as a guitar player. Anybody paying attention has seen that the man can riff and shred fantastically, but here we get to see another side to it. Every song on here feels incredibly lush, layered and detailed in spite of only being performed with one instrument. Tracks like "Ride To Roberts", the title track "Foxes In The Snow" and "Crimson and Clay" showcase this aspect of the album perfectly. It's the kind of thing that makes me- an acoustic guitar player- want to get better at my instrument. The choice to strip things down to just the acoustic guitar allows the focus to be on Isbell's lyrics and songwriting.
This album is very explicitly about the heartbreak of Isbell's divorce, and as such, it can often be a depressing, ugly, and uncomfortable album. This may be a turn-off for some people, but if you know what you're getting into, this record is very impressive from a songwriting standpoint. The opening track, "Bury Me," is seemingly a reflection on Isbell's career up to this point, with lyrics like "I ain't no cowboy but I can ride, and I ain't no outlaw but I've been inside" being illusions to both his successes and failures throughout his career. "Gravelweed" is a reflection on what Isbell sees as his mistakes in his marriage as well as the aftermath. That song has the brutal lines "Now that I live to see my melodies betray me, I'm sorry the love songs all mean different things today", referencing the many songs he wrote about his ex-wife and the cruel irony they exhibit today. The title track is a darker, almost sarcastic-sounding track which sees Isbell reflecting on what he liked about his marriage but with a tone that makes him sound angry. An unsettling flip on what this kind of song should be like.
At the end of the album's runtime, we get the two best songs back to back, "True Believer" and the closer "Wind Behind The Rain." The first one, "True Believer" is the most blunt song on the album. Isbell has been playing with metaphor up until this point but this song expresses his very honest feelings about the breakup. It's a song about giving up on repairing a relationship you strongly believed was going to work and it's absolutely heartbreaking. The closer, "Wind Behind The Rain", is a brand new Isbell all-timer and might be one of my new favorite country songs of all time. This one is about the pain of still loving somebody who you're no longer together with, and the desire to have that person back in your life. "If you leave me now I'll just keep running back to you, I'll be the wind behind the rain" seems to imply a desire to not only fix the relationship, but to be the driving force behind it flourishing (i.e. the wind that drives a rainstorm forward). The honest nature of this song, as delusional as the sentiment may be, is what truly makes it special and why it's my favorite song on the album.
The one issue with this album is that it requires a fair bit of context for it to truly hit you. I've been an Isbell fan since about 2020, when Reunions came out, so by the time this new one came around, I already had all the context behind the record. Newer listeners may still be able to enjoy this record but they're not going to be as engrossed in it as those of us who knew about Isbell's relationship with Shires and his prior work with The 400 Unit, that's just part of the nature of making an album like this. That being said, this is definitely one of my new favorite Isbell albums, definitely my favorite of the ones released under just his name. Its layered and emotional performances allow the album to be something truly special, as well as being a nice little departure from the usual full band sound Isbell's records have.
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