Boxer's 'Capped The Duke' marks a dazzling rebirth for a voice reborn

There are comeback stories, and then there are arrivals that feel like someone stepping out of their own shadow and finally breathing again. 'Capped The Duke', the striking first release from Glasgow’s newest indie-folk force Boxer, lands firmly in the latter. It’s the sound of an artist closing one chapter with quiet conviction and opening another with a full, beating heart.

Boxer emerges from the dissolution of The Exhales rearranged, reflective, and reaching toward something truer. 'Capped The Duke' plays like the moment the fog lifts after a long winter. Every line feels carved from real experience, quietly carrying the weight of loss, reinvention, and the delicate balancing act of trying to figure out where life goes next.

Musically, the single fits comfortably within the lineage of emotionally resonant indie folk, such as the weathered poetics of The National, the glacial introspection of Bon Iver, and the raw edges of Big Thief, but Boxer is translating it into something he owns. His voice sits with a tremor that feels lived-in, set against arrangements that bloom slowly like light leaking under a door.

Lyrically, 'Capped The Duke' digs into disconnection, depression, and the raw ache of transition, but it’s never bleak. Instead, it feels like someone finding their footing mid-fall, capturing the exact moment where resilience quietly slips back into the room. It’s a song built for the late hours, when the world has gone still and the truth is easier to hear.

Boxer may describe this project as the sound of starting over, but 'Capped The Duke' makes it clear he’s also starting up. This is the opening page of something profound, a debut that feels both intimate and expansive. And if this first offering is any indication, it’s a sound we want to return to again and again.