Fleet Foxes - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.co.uk
It's now twenty years since grunge emerged from then culturally isolated Seattle and Fleet Foxes, the eponymous debut album from the city's latest heroes, demonstrates just how much American independent rock has mutated in that time. The five young members of Fleet Foxes make up a very different sort of rock band, describing their own music as "baroque harmonic pop jams". Even that understates the depths of the quintet's effortless vocal harmonies and gently woozy, folky feel. Of their contemporaries only the enigmatic Midlake and My Morning Jacket at their most fragile come close, but neither could have cooked up the Beach Boys spiritual of "White Winter Hymnal" or its more powerful companion piece "Ragged Wood". In fact Fleet Foxes happily admit to aspiring to an earlier tradition--not just obvious antecedents like the Byrds, the Association, Neil Young and, especially, David Crosby's famously unfocussed solo album If Only I Could Remember My Name but ancient English folk songs and their later American descendents. All were hunted and gathered from the internet--songwriters Robin Pecknold and Skye Skjelset are barely in their twenties. Add a host of unlikely instruments and the results are stunning, the complete antithesis of mainstream stadium indie that has followed Arcade Fire. Still, the cover features a Bruegel painting of peasants that might have graced any Black Sabbath sleeve. In that way at least Fleet Foxes salute a local tradition. -—Steve Jelbert

Product Description
Seattle's Fleet Foxes traffic in baroque harmonic pop. They draw influences from the traditions of folk, pop, choral, gospel, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, film scores, and their NW peers. The subject matter ranges from the natural world and familial bonds to bygone loves and stone cold graves.

Album Description
2008 album from this Seattle based quintet. Fleet Foxes are, for lack of an imminently more marketable descriptor, a group trafficking in baroque harmonic pop. And the joy they derive in doing so is palpable. We feel it too. They are, self-described, not much of a rock band. With the help of credit cards, minimum wages, tip money, friends and family, Fleet Foxes crafted their first demo, and subsequently the Sun Giant EP and this debut full-length album, with family friend Phil Ek manning the rudder. Drawing influence from the traditions of folk music, pop, choral music and gospel, sacred harp singing, West Coast music, traditional music from Ireland to Japan, film scores, and their NW peers, Fleet Foxes ranges in subject matter from the natural world and familial bonds to bygone loves and stone cold graves.

Customer Reviews: Read 83 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

I dont know any better June 16, 2008
60 out of 88 found this review helpful

So I was passing through one day and noticed the Sun Giant cover art by Fleet Foxes on Amazon. I was fixated by it. Yeh sure, dont judge an album by its cover art, but I looked at that spectacular view with the colossal architecture in the background and thought, I want to be there... If they can put me in that picture for just one track... Im bought. The opener does just that... and the single 'Mykonos' is a breathtaking dreamscape of accessible melody.

So, yeh Pitchfork and all the other high brow publications can give a handful of important reasons why this album is worth its weight in gold... but I was more interested in the melodies. For me, Fleet Foxes is most glorious when it strikes that harmonious chord. When all those exotic instruments materialize a blissful tune. Tracks like 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song", "He doesnt Know Why", "Your Protector" "Oliver JAmes".

And maybe thats inferior of me to look at it this way. But maybe thats why 'Tv on the Radio's' so called most important album of the year - (Cookie Mountain), wasn't collectively anyones' favorite album of the year (bar a few gorgeous tracks). Melody is underrated. And in my opinion Fleet Foxes' debut album lacks that melodic cohesion. It has the resources, the spirit and the know how, but it lacks that innate musical melody to make it a 5 star album.

Even the tracks I mention suffer from awkward moments of cheap thrills. For example, the latter half of "He doesn't know why" just ends up going through the motions, for the sake of completion.

A brilliant first half of whimsical phrasing is finished off with a generic and passive ...."There's nothing .. I can ... doo" which just deflates a very beautiful and engaging piece of music.

How does that go unnoticed. I dont know... but the song deserves a better chorus line. It deserved more attention.

Of course I expect to get slammed for this.

5 out of 5 stars

Hold me dear, into the night June 4, 2008
44 out of 46 found this review helpful

The Fleet Foxes are a rock band that sounds like no other -- imagine a pastoral choir overwhelming a sweeping folk-rock band, in the middle of a sunlit forest in the spring.

That's about the sound of the Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut album -- it's a stream of lush, jangly folk pop, edged with a touch of baroque and country-rock. While their "Sun Giant" EP was an excellent introduction, it's nothing compared to the rough-edged grandeur of the full-length album, with its glorious instrumentation and vivid lyricism.

The only really offputting part of the album is the opening five seconds, when an off-key chorale sings, "Reeeeed squirrel in the morning/Reeeeeeeed squirrel in the evening..."

Then the song suddenly melts into a gentle acoustic guitar shimmering with keyboard. "The sun rises, over my head/Hold me dear, into the night/Sun it will rise soon in the morn..." Robin Pecknold sings with all the solemnity of a choirboy. His voice soars over the steelier riffs and thumping drums, only to settle down with, "The sun rising, dangling there/Golden and fair, in the sky..."

Wow. When an intro is that lovely, just imagine what the songs that follow are going to be like.

In this case, it's the shifting folky "White Winter Hymnal," with its kettle drums and beautiful campfire harmonies ("I was following... I was following... I was following the pack/all swallowed in their coats/with scarves of red tied 'round their throats"), followed by the endearingly energetic rocker "Ragged Wood" ("You should come back home/back on your own now!").

It gets no less endearing after that: Gentle bluesy ballads, jangly folk-pop with lots of squiggly mellotron, sweeping pop chorales, bouncy countryish rockers with lots of intertwined guitars. Things get quieter near the end -- "Fleet Foxes" ends with a trio of lower-key, folkier ballads, sometimes with nothing more than Pecknold's voice and a guitar.

There's something very warm and welcoming about the Fleet Foxes' music, and there's hardly a song on their self-titled album that doesn't contain that sunniness. And though the bittersweet songs focus on the usual topics -- family, love, lost friends -- there's a strong feeling of pastoral beauty, especially since they're sprinkled with meadowlarks, wood-women, "quivering forests," Tennessee and grassy graves.

In fact, the lyrics are crammed with vivid ("And, Michael, you would fall/and turn the white snow red as strawberries") and striking language ("I hold a cornucopia and a golden crown"). At times, the band's lyrics are pure poetry ("Wanderers this morning came by/Where did they go?/Graceful in the morning light/To banner fair/To follow you softly/In the cold mountain air...").

These songs are wrapped in lush melodies of striking music, which happily swirl together folk, classic earthy rock, pop, baroque and a bit of country. And an coustic guitar is the lead instrument here; sometimes it's all by itself, and sometimes it's intertwined with a smooth mix of other instruments -- hollow drums, rippling mellotron, steely guitar, and a hint of harp being plucked somewhere.

And finally there's Robin Pecknold. He sounds a little off-key in the spare ballads, but in the more complex songs he sounds sweet, strong and truly beautiful, especially when he does that soaring thing. And I have to say, I'm a sucker for the band's sunny chorale sound -- the harmonies really make those melodies sound exquisite.

The Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut is one of the best albums I've heard all year, with its blend of styles and bittersweetly lovely songs. Haunting and truly lovely.

1 out of 5 stars

Another Pitchfork Brainwash! October 3, 2008
10 out of 30 found this review helpful

People, this is an average album by an average band. Yes, the melodies are pretty, yes, the guitars are pretty, yes, they have beards and they're from Seattle. Are you indie monkeys getting the picture here? You've just been sold another retro, throwback album. Why can't we just see these guys for what they really are? A bunch of dudes just playing some songs, no boundaries are being broken, no experimentation is on hand. The fact that people are viewing this as some kind of colossally new form of music shows me how gullible you all are and how willing you are to take whatever the media feeds you. It really isn't folks, maybe you guys have been hittin' those Lysol cans again, cause the fumes are killin' you! Having said all this, it's not an album to mock or put down, it's just not that special, that's all.

Now I'm sure that this review will get all your pantyhose's in a bunch, railing me because I offended your indie sensibilities. Yes, I know, you really don't care what Pitchfork, Metacritic, Popmatters and all the other high-brow web sites say, I'm sure your opinion was formulated entirely on your own! Yes, you are unique & beautiful snowflakes free to judge this music without the influence of the perennial "loser in real-life that now looks down his nose at you because he works at an indie record store/website". Save your breath, go bother someone who actually cares what you think.

2 out of 5 stars

Beautiful music but will do little for our struggling economy October 10, 2008
10 out of 104 found this review helpful

This is really such a shimmeringly beautiful, almost elegiac, album. But, honestly, in times such as this (specifically, now (for those of you who may be reading this a few years from now)), we need help with our economy any way we can get it. Now, I know music can only do so much (especially since it's just music), but I feel like we need to support the music artists that most help boost our countrie's economic station even if the differences between artists in this regard is very very slight. We need all the help we can get!

Well, Fleet Fox (or is it Foxes? I'm not sure which), as you notice, create very laid back folky music. I feel like this runs the risk of influencing a certain laid backness that our country really can't weather right now. I feel like New Order or someone like daft Punk who use technology in their music and have to take classes to learn their instruments and have to have software and flow charts and such things to do their music are therefore more like to influence a swelling economy.

Fleet F's are on Sub-Pop. This is the label Nirvana(s) started on. Their lead vocalist, Kurt Cobain, killed himself. If you think about it, killing oneself is like committing economic suicide. Sure, you're not spending any more money, but you're not bringing in any either to yourself. That kind of philosophy that Sub-Pop upholds can't be spread through our fragile nation right now. Again, there are other artists like Jay-Z or Usher etc. who aren't on Sub-Pop and not doing that stuff.

They also have a song "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" that someone could get the idea that tigers and peasants... Well, anyway, you get the idea. It's frightening to even think about it, even as unlikely as it is to happen. The fact that it COULD happen is enough to stay away from this album.

But if you really, really can't stay away from this album, do it in such a way that the economy doesn't "know" if that makes any sense.

FYI Modest Mouse is probably statistically about the best (if any music can really be called the best) for this particular sub-prime crash/over-leveraged credit lethal combination our nation's going through right now.

OKAY: I'VE GOTTEN A 0 of 8 HELPFUL ON THIS SO FAR? YOU KIDDING ME? I PUT IN THE TIME TO REVIEW THIS FOR YOU? AND DO YOU NOT CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMY?

OKAY II: THIS REVIEW ONLY HAS 8 OF 54 HELPFUL RATING!!? WHAT? I DON'T DO THESE REVIEWS FOR MY HEALTH. I LISTEN TO THE MUSIC, I DO RESEARCH, AND I TAKE THE TIME TO DO THESE FOR YOU GUYS. WELL, I SURE HOPE YOU DON'T GIVE OBAMA AN 8 FOR 54 HELPFUL ON ELECTION DAY. IF YOU DO, HE'LL LOSE THE ELECTION AND THE PRESIDENCY RIGHT ALONG WITH IT.

1 out of 5 stars

I don't get it August 18, 2008
8 out of 25 found this review helpful

I seriously don't understand the hype over these guys. There is nothing new or groundbreaking in the folk-esque genre on this cd. Actually it is uncomplex, and boring. Is this one of those bands like M.I.A. that the indie blogs and websites throw around just to see if we as consumers will actually buy anything they give 5 stars too? Music is supposed to make you feel and I am not feeling it at all. Go listen to Band of Horses, Animal Collective or anything else for that matter because this thing sucks.

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