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Fleet Foxes
12.20.08
The buzz around the Seattle-based Fleet Foxes is unmistakable.
Their album was described as "one of the most critically-acclaimed
albums of 2008" by Conan O'Brien as he introduced them
for their appearance on his show just a few days ago. Rightly
so. Favorable reviews are all over the net, everyone from
Rolling Stone to NME to Pitchfork.
When an album is preceded so by its reputation, there's
a risk of letting your perceptions of the album be colored
by the hype, and of subconsciously making yourself like
it because you think you should. Not so with Fleet Foxes.
The music is so purely infectious that all of your expectations
and ulterior motives melt away. Much like the escapist fantasy
found in a children's storybook, you are led into a world
of vivid folk pop music where all of your preconceived notions
are put on hold.
The album starts out with a brief a capella piece which
then rushes into the folk-tinged acoustic rhythm guitar
that forms the basis for the Fleet Foxes style. It's joined
by the kind of sparkling clean, vintage country-inspired
electric guitar riffs that Fender amps are built for. Vocalist
Robin Pecknold's voice soars up to a crystal-clear falsetto
and back down again with ease, backed by a Pet Sounds-style
harmony. True to the indie-pop spirit, the voices are absolutely
soaked with reverb.
Lyrics are cryptic and vague... and hauntingly beautiful.
In the mournful acoustic ballad "Oliver James",
Pecknold sings, "On the kitchen table that your grandfather
did make/ You in your delicate way will slowly clean his
face/ And you will remember when you rehearsed the actions
of/ An innocent and anxious mother full of anxious love".
Heartwrenching.
There's a distinct feeling of antiquity that runs through
the entire album. If you allow yourself to forget for a
moment that this music draws mainly from Twentieth Century
musical styles, you can almost place it right into the Renaissance.
Of course this requires a little bit of cognitive dissonance,
but perhaps that's what Fleet Foxes intended: to create
an album so timeless and classic in style that it doesn't
neatly fit into any time period, and requires a little bit
of mental squashing and stretching to categorize it.
Reviewed by: Brenton William Brookings
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