Milk N’ Fox, a Colorado band based in Summit County, about 70 miles west of Denver, has been releasing music since 2023, but has been playing together since their high school days in Avon, CO. (Another Colorado band, Big Head Todd and the Monsters has also been together since high school—what is it about Colorado?) Last Year, Milk N’ Fox released their first album called The Last Song, which encapsulated the band’s sound up to that point. If their 2025 single, “Free From Chains (Run)” is anything to go by, the trio is already discovering ways to open up their sound and deepen their presence on record.
The Last Song is a scrappy alt-rock record clocking in at a little over thirty minutes with songs that tend to be around three to four minutes long. Guitarist and vocalist Chad Ellis cites early Kings of Leon as a personal influence, and that’s worth keeping in mind. Although the trio, with drummer Mike Allen and bassist Kevin Daye, brings a considerable number of influences to the material, most of these songs leave ragged edges blowing in the wind, an aesthetic that harkens back to those early Kings of Leon albums.
The title track makes for an odd opener, splitting a narrow difference between Nirvana’s driving rhythms and Offspring’s ironic hooks. Ellis’s distorted vocals compress a sense of urgency that garbled lyrics (by virtue of the vocal treatment) fail to reveal when the song is cut off abruptly. And so “The Last Song” is, in some ways, the only one of its kind, excepting “Hey May,” which feels like a more reckless (and more enjoyable) companion piece with much of the same production values.
The band members are all impressive players. Daye keeps the pulse while exploring melodic lines on the bass, and Allen actively utilizes the kick to bring a more primal approach to his kit. This leaves Ellis to hold down the harmonic changes and color the tone palette with his guitar. But one of the attractive things about this record is that the songs place all their bets on their form and narrative-like flow and climax to keep listeners intrigued, rather than scorching guitar solos or general pyrotechnics.
For many songs, these bets pay off. Milk N’ Fox has a penchant for changing the feel of songs through abrupt time shifts, sometimes starting a tune at a spry pace and going to half-time on the chorus, usually (and ironically) with a heightened sense of drive coming from the guitar, so the songs seem to lay back and lean in at the same time. “Fortune Cookie,” which lands just after the title track, follows a quietly churning guitar part on the heels of Allen’s spritely march-like opening rhythm. But the chorus slows down to half while the guitar hits the chords hard. Similarly, “Life of Delight” goes back and forth between quickly paced but restrained verses to a chorus that is initially quiet, but ultimately brings the song’s emotive power, a fact that owes a lot to Allen’s dynamic drumming. The through line between these sections is comprised of Ellis’s voice and Daye’s fluid bass playing.
Just as often, though, Milk N’ Fox reverses that approach, leaving some space in the verses and building intensity in the choruses. “Knowing Me Well” does this with Allen kicking on beat while Ellis and Daye sketch chords on the verses. Oddly, this song sounds like “Nettie Moore” if it had been written by a ‘90s alt-rock band instead of Bob Dylan. “100 Fields Red” also follows this pattern with Allen leaning on the kick like a pre-Achtung Baby! Larry Mullins Jr.
For other songs, the payoff isn’t as grand. “Ponderosa” is a mellow piece that threatens to explode on the driving choruses, but never quite does, leaving the listener feeling a tad unfulfilled. Others feel curiously dormant, like “Stalk Pretty,” which drags, or “Dynamind,” which affects a double-time riff similar to The Black Crowes song “Jealous Again,” but which fails to release into anything.
Even so, there are a lot of good songs on this debut effort, including the nostalgic “Airwave Surfer,” which sounds like a tribute to Audioslave. One hears echoes of Chris Cornell’s harmonies and Tom Morello’s lead guitar on “Like a Stone.” The Last Song establishes an admirable foundation for Milk N’ Fox, and with a new single out, one can reasonably hope the band’s next effort continues to deepen their sound and build on their strengths.
Christopher Raley
