reviewed by Laura Stanley
In her second EP, Funeral Walking, Montreal by way of Edmonton musician Eva Foote mourns her past and revels in her new self. It’s a complicated tapestry of emotions, as a result, this dual celebration – commemorating the past and the possibilities the future holds. Foote herself best describes her state of being in the song “Top Floor” when she sings: “Being dead has made me feel so alive.”
Foote caught our attention last year with her debut record Sparrow & Stone – “A humble little folk release,” as I described it. In Funeral Walking, Foote has shed this gentler approach to folk and instead presents a folk/country mix that’s a little rougher and tougher to match her new self; it’s smokey, beer stained, and has gone to bed with the sunrise a few too many times.
We get glimpses of Foote’s past throughout Funeral Walking and subsequently the reasons for her new state of being: “Throwing Roses” traces Foote’s move from Edmonton to Montreal and the loneliness that came with it and on the tender closer “Trying To” she reveals, “Only time we laugh is when we’re drinking…I wrote this to tell you I haven’t given up on you but I’m trying to.”
Funeral Walking is at its most striking during its first two tracks. On the title track, alongside an alt-country arrangement, Foote sounds wholly confidently, in total control of herself and in the song’s chorus she croons this epiphanic line, “asking you to love me was the worst thing I could’ve done.” This confidence spills over to the second track “Top Floor” where we hear Foote grappling with a depressive state but determined to move on, grow, and keep walking.
Top Track: “Funeral Walking”; “Top Floor”
Rating: Strong Hoot (Good)
