Fleet Foxes

When I first heard the Sun Giant EP earlier this spring, my initial reaction was that Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold sounded too much like Jim James from My Morning Jacket. I was borderline dismissive of the Seattle collective’s effort, simply because their singer bore a resemblance in timbre to the voice behind Kentucky’s favorite sons. Thankfully, I kept listening to Sun Giant, because, if I hadn’t, I might never have listened to the band’s new debut self-titled LP. And that would have been a mistake.

Fleet Foxes feels like a completed version of Sun Giant. Where the EP left us all hanging, wanting to hear more of what this band could do, the LP gives a larger, more complete picture of whom Fleet Foxes are. This is a band raised on Americana and folk, reinterpreting their Baby Boomer parents’ record collections (which, according to their Sub Pop bio, they spent plenty of time listening to) for a new generation of listeners.

While all the talk is about folk music, don’t believe this to be an entirely quiet affair. Sure, it has it’s fair share of a capella voices and hushed acoustic guitars, but these guys also have a little bit of a pop/rock sensibility about them—take the psychedelic rocker “Quiet Houses” or the Beach Boys pop harmony on “He Doesn’t Know Why.” For my money, the album’s greatest rock moment occurs when the big floor toms come in on “Your Protector,” which is possibly the band’s best attempt at folk rock (rather than straight-up folk).

They thing I can most appreciate about Fleet Foxes is that all things serve a purpose. Extra voices aren’t just to fill up space but to add harmony. Various instrumentation (be it electric guitar or some “alternative” instrument) is there for the purpose of melody or rhythm. Everything seems to serve a purpose on this album, which is nice to hear every now and again in this post-Arcade Fire/post-Broken Social Scene world. Don’t get me wrong, I love those bands and their hugely complex sounds, but it’s nice to hear a little simplicity every once in a while—like the pleasant “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” or album opener “Sun It Rises.”

Sooner or later, it has to be mentioned that these guys can flat out sing. The aforementioned “He Doesn’t Know Why” is dripping with beautiful harmonies. The crowning achievement, however, for Fleet Foxes’ vocal work (and for the album as a whole) is the beautiful-yet-sinister “White Winter Hymnal” with it’s imagery of blood making the snow “as red as strawberries in the summertime.” There’s certainly an eerie feel to that many voices coming together, but Fleet Foxes also give it a sort of innocence—like Robin says in their bio, “To me, the most enjoyable thing in the world is to sing harmony with people, so we do that a bunch.”

This album comes off as honest, which is necessary accompaniment to the simplicity and the folkiness. Honesty is what keeps this album from being pretentious (or any album for that matter). I have to believe Robin Pecknold when he says, “All we strove for with this record was to make something that was an honest reflection of who we are, citizens of the western United States who love all kinds of music and above all else love singing… This record is like our first steps and like any newborn, we made mistakes and made discoveries and in the process better found out who we are! That is what the record represents to me when I hear it now—the process we went through to find ourselves the first time. We cannot wait to continue making records, to explore all there is to explore in this vast musical landscape and test ourselves in new ways through song.”

Well, to be honest, I can’t wait for them to continue make records either! If this band can continue producing quality, honest music like this debut LP and it’s shorter predecessor, then I’ll be a fan for life—so long as they follow through on that promise to explore and test themselves. For now, I’ll enjoy these “first steps.”

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