Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

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LP 2, out May 3

I was following the, I was following the, I was following the, ...

http://pitchfork.com/news/41402-fleet-foxes-return-with-new-album-tour/

markers, Monday, 31 January 2011 20:37 (2 years ago) Permalink

this album title is parody

lilwayne.quizrewards4u.com (J0rdan S.), Monday, 31 January 2011 20:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

that said i dug some songs on the last one

lilwayne.quizrewards4u.com (J0rdan S.), Monday, 31 January 2011 20:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

reminds me of the broadcast/focus group cover

talk talk talk (diamonddave85), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

holy 1972

call all destroyer, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:05 (2 years ago) Permalink

better than the last cover

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:06 (2 years ago) Permalink

sounds exactly like their last album.

skip, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

the new song, I mean.

skip, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

sort of looking forward to it.

Cultivating a manly musk puts your opponents on notice (chrisv2010), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:09 (2 years ago) Permalink

last one really grew on me over time

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:10 (2 years ago) Permalink

they're definitely a band that i "like" but that's about it -- saw them at pfork & enjoyed it, i think a few songs are a classic, a friend played the last album when we were chilling by a fire & it worked well (also driving thru tennessee)

you easily could've told me that the new song was a deep cut off the last album but w/e

lilwayne.quizrewards4u.com (J0rdan S.), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

big ups to sub pop tho in letting me stream this w/o having to give them a fake email address

lilwayne.quizrewards4u.com (J0rdan S.), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:15 (2 years ago) Permalink

such a useless band

originoo gun kl0pper (k3vin k.), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

uselessness blues

omar little, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

fleet the foxers

buzza, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

I am perplexed by this idea of evaluating bands based on their "usefulness"

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

y'know, like Godsmack is a terrible band but they are useful for motivating our armed forces!

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

Olivia Newton John is useful for jazzercise

ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

lol

originoo gun kl0pper (k3vin k.), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

there are plenty of people who use music as a tool. even tool music.

scott seward, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

I assume it's standard to hate these guys but I don't mind them. Saying I like them would be quite a stretch though.

Daithi Lacha Flame (seandalai), Monday, 31 January 2011 21:47 (2 years ago) Permalink

they are already kinda dated by their animal name though. and its too late for them to pick a beach name. people should just change group names with every album now. have twitter new name contests. its the 21st century.

scott seward, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

beach foxes!

mizzell, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

Furry Bastards

Ned Raggett, Monday, 31 January 2011 21:53 (2 years ago) Permalink

very cool cover. it's time for a new album as the last one was pretty addictive.

World Series champion San Francisco Giants (Bee OK), Wednesday, 2 February 2011 04:36 (2 years ago) Permalink

Lyrics don't make a whole lot of sense

also kind of sounds like an outtake from a Simon and Garfunkel session

blackcoffeeredsun, Saturday, 5 February 2011 02:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Another new song and it's pretty average...

http://onethirtybpm.com/media/listen-fleet-foxes-battery-kinzie/

Tim. E "LazRus" Lucas (Prose b4 Hoes...and Big Hoos), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 03:25 (2 years ago) Permalink

I loved English House the first time I heard it and every other song since has been disappointing.

for real molars who ain't got no fillings (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 04:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

five songs in, waiting for a "white winter hymnal." this title track sounds promising. . . .

reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, 29 March 2011 03:24 (2 years ago) Permalink

These guys have 4 awesome beautiful songs (first three off debut album & Mykonos) but beyond that are so powerfully average they may as well be made of bread.

lol sickmouthy (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 29 March 2011 05:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

baby im a want you

Get me two meatball sandwiches Utah! TWO! (thebingo), Tuesday, 29 March 2011 13:35 (2 years ago) Permalink

hmm im loving this.

Zero pumps, massive boner (thebingo), Monday, 4 April 2011 14:27 (2 years ago) Permalink

I downloaded this to see what the fuss was about. Made it half way through the 4th track before 'select all - send to trash'.

brotherlovesdub, Monday, 4 April 2011 18:24 (2 years ago) Permalink

It's enjoyable, but nothing really as memorable as the debut or the EP. I keep listening to it tho, cause it's really pretty. Not unlike the Midlake album last year.

Mordy, Monday, 4 April 2011 18:27 (2 years ago) Permalink

these guys sound like wussies

badboy69 (dboy420), Monday, 4 April 2011 18:28 (2 years ago) Permalink

i wonder when folk music became associated with being a wuss- was it just years of lilith fair being the most famous "folk" festival?

Mordy, Monday, 4 April 2011 18:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

it was probably when they started singing like girls

badboy69 (dboy420), Monday, 4 April 2011 18:37 (2 years ago) Permalink

i'd describe Robin Pecknold's voice in a number of ways, some of which aren't favorable, but i would never say that he sounds like a girl. what girl do you know that sounds like him?

Mordy, Monday, 4 April 2011 18:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

such a useless band

― originoo gun kl0pper (k3vin k.), Monday, January 31, 2011 3:38 PM (2 months ago)

hey ilxor, thanks for contributing, glad you stopped by (ilxor), Monday, 4 April 2011 18:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

Another one of those widely praised bands that for some reason can hardly get a hearing on ILX. I like 'em. Title track is stunning.

Pop is superior to all other genres (DL), Monday, 4 April 2011 18:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

idk if i'll actually read the review, but 8.8 bnm:

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15363-helplessness-blues/

markers, Monday, 2 May 2011 06:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

idk if i'll actually listen to the record

bananas foster wallace (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 2 May 2011 06:38 (2 years ago) Permalink

yeah, seconded

markers, Monday, 2 May 2011 06:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

fleet foxes only ever make me think of the ways we identify with and construct identity through music. they never make me think of music, even when i'm thinking of something undeniably beautiful, like "white winter hymnal" or "mykonos". i say this because i'm across the divide, on some other team. it has nothing to do with the fundamental quality of their music (whatever that might be) or even its subjective appeal. it's just that the ties that bind bind me to other things, and the distance seems unbridgeable. my loss, right?

right. i'm working through it. i'm never gonna be a fan of comfy-style, beards & tevas 60s/70s revivalism, with music that combines earnest emotionalism with the desire to create a soothing campfire atmosphere. it seems too undemandingly suburban, domestic, and i'm a fucking freak, dammit. but nor am i 100% happy with the oppositional, elitist, punk-derived associations i forged in my youth, associations that seem to demand that i sneer down from on high at this sort of thing.

basically, it sucks to be held prisoner by what you think about the people who supposedly think certain things, by your assumptions about other people's assumptions about culture and meaning. i mean, i like fleetwood mac A FUCK OF A LOT, and even if they're just watered-down latter day pretenders to that kind of radiance, fleet foxes occasionally give me a similar chill. so i've decided to try to like them, as a sort of thought experiment. you know, when i get tired of turning this electric wizard record over and over and over again...

normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Monday, 2 May 2011 07:07 (2 years ago) Permalink

I find them insanely boring, including this new one. Don't get the appeal at all.

Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Monday, 2 May 2011 07:22 (2 years ago) Permalink

i guess i do too. i mean, i got high ideals about broadening my horizons and giving them a fair shot and all, but whenever i try i get bored. right now, i'm listening to the new beastie boys instead, and it's not like i'm proud to say that.

normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Monday, 2 May 2011 07:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

Feel not shame

THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Monday, 2 May 2011 09:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

o but...

normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Monday, 2 May 2011 09:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

Also I love the phrase "insanely boring". So many ways to take that.

THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Monday, 2 May 2011 09:13 (2 years ago) Permalink

"This record is so devoid of interest that, in listening, I felt some measure of sanity slip away." Isn't that like end of The Dark Crystal?

THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Monday, 2 May 2011 09:14 (2 years ago) Permalink

Album of the year so far. By a mile.

alpine static, Wednesday, 4 May 2011 05:29 (2 years ago) Permalink

If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 4 May 2011 11:11 (2 years ago) Permalink

Predictable that the haters would trot out the tired "hippie" and "beard" cliches. Tbh, I can completely understand why someone might not be into this sort of thing, there is definitely a dangerous level of preciousness in play, but out of hundreds of bands striving for this new faux-pastoral folk thing, I think "Helplessness Blues" is one of the rare examples of it being done really well and in an interesting way.

My problem with Fleet Foxes is definitely not that they are pastoral. Maybe rather that they are not pastoral enough, or pastoral in the wrong way. I dunno. I don't dislike them in any way, tney are perfectly fine and all that. But I feel they are getting too much attention that other (more) pastoral acts with better songs and better vocal harmonies might have deserved instead. Like Guillemots, for instance, to me they are doing partly the same thing much better.

Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 5 May 2011 09:44 (2 years ago) Permalink

geir ever hear matt pond PA? For chamber pop, its right up your alley.

impeccable suit shit stained underwear (thebingo), Thursday, 5 May 2011 13:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

I'm a few listens in to this album... I don't dislike it but it's not gripping me the way the last one did.

scott pgwp (pgwp), Thursday, 5 May 2011 16:26 (2 years ago) Permalink

I enjoyed this on first listen but the vocals are a serious problem. I wish they had saved the gloopiest harmonies for special moments - at times it's like they focused more on the vocal chords than on the songs themselves.

skip, Thursday, 5 May 2011 16:49 (2 years ago) Permalink

That's my problem with them: every song is a special moment apparently.

ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 May 2011 16:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

I don't get the utility of accusing any music of being "faux"

no slouch of a snipster (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 5 May 2011 17:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

how 'bout "feh"

ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 5 May 2011 17:08 (2 years ago) Permalink

fleet fauxes

markers, Thursday, 5 May 2011 17:12 (2 years ago) Permalink

utility is that it's dismissive, therefore useful in the dismissal of that which offends

anyway, this is OTM:

I wish they had saved the gloopiest harmonies for special moments - at times it's like they focused more on the vocal chords than on the songs themselves.

― skip, Thursday, May 5, 2011 9:49 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

That's my problem with them: every song is a special moment apparently.

― ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 5, 2011 9:50 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

suppose i feel the same way about, say, U2. there is virtue in restraint, in allowing only a little of that vocal/emotional sunshine in, holding it back, letting tension develop. fleet foxes don't do restraint, and it makes them seem "easy" (to use a gross metaphor). otoh, that kind of oversharing has hardly held U2's career back, and though critics don't often appreciate it, a lot of people clearly do.

fwiw, this album gets along very well with certain chemical enhancements.

normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Thursday, 5 May 2011 21:06 (2 years ago) Permalink

like a diet soda?

alpine static, Saturday, 7 May 2011 18:46 (2 years ago) Permalink

a bottle of sleeping pills and a goodbye note

reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Saturday, 7 May 2011 21:32 (2 years ago) Permalink

this is great y'all are crazy

Wrinkles (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

granted I'm only on the first song, haha

Wrinkles (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:19 (2 years ago) Permalink

so this is basically a Simon & Garfunkel record

Wrinkles (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:29 (2 years ago) Permalink

And you must worship it or be destroyed, apparently.

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:30 (2 years ago) Permalink

hello inertia my old friend

ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:33 (2 years ago) Permalink

warm... and mandatory

american thinker (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:39 (2 years ago) Permalink

lol

call all destroyer, Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:40 (2 years ago) Permalink

Paul Simon's new album >>>>> this thing

ginny thomas and tonic (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:41 (2 years ago) Permalink

I liked the bit of the stream I heard of the new Paul Simon thing - obviously he's moved on from this folk-pop strummery harmony-laden stuff lol

american thinker (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:42 (2 years ago) Permalink

but really the dual-melody harmonies on this are VERY S&G, seems like the most obvious reference point to me

american thinker (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 22:43 (2 years ago) Permalink

hmm, some much more abrupt/discordant moments on here compared to the last one

american thinker (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 23:10 (2 years ago) Permalink

kind of boring.

akm, Tuesday, 10 May 2011 23:44 (2 years ago) Permalink

I loved the last one - loved the last one. The new album is good but somehow "good" feels disappointing.

scott pgwp (pgwp), Tuesday, 10 May 2011 23:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

Largely the same feeling with their first and second^. It's like listening to a group of classically trained celloists... I mean, fuck, I'm impressed and all. They're doing everything perfectly. But it's a snooze.

kelpolaris, Friday, 13 May 2011 04:50 (2 years ago) Permalink

nothing worse than a bunch of classically trained cellists

just sayin, Friday, 13 May 2011 10:48 (2 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

this is great. seems to me the only misstep is some of the gypsy fiddling stuff

a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 June 2011 17:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

^^^ I really like this album.

jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 30 June 2011 17:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

If competent vocal harmonies were still a rock norm nobody would give a fuck about these beardos.

thewufs, Thursday, 30 June 2011 17:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

But then Pitchfork always creams itself over half-assed, reverb-drenched Beach Boys rips

thewufs, Thursday, 30 June 2011 18:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

this doesn't really sound like any Beach Boys record

harmonies /= Beach Boys

a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 June 2011 18:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, this is a lot closer to CSNY than anything Beach Boys. I mean, its easy enough to understand why people would dislike this type of thing, so theres not need to just make up nonsensical dismissals.

jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 30 June 2011 18:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

I said Simon & Garfunkel upthread but yeah CSNY is also appropriate

a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

Grateful Dead, too.

o. nate, Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

nah the Foxes can actually sing

a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

seriously one of the things I cannot get past with the dead is how shitty their vocals and vocal melodies are. drives me up the wall.

a man is only a guy (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

Foxes are "better" singers, I'll grant you that.

o. nate, Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

There are some pretty nice harmonies on Workingman's Dead though.

o. nate, Thursday, 30 June 2011 19:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

CSN(Y) is right on the money I think

Boehner & der club of GOP (Ówen P.), Friday, 1 July 2011 00:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

this Father John Misty album is really good btw

the choogler and the chosen one (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 10 August 2012 20:52 (9 months ago) Permalink

it is much funnier than anything FF has ever done, that's for sure

the choogler and the chosen one (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 August 2012 19:49 (9 months ago) Permalink

I'm not so much into the Father John Misty stuff, but I love Poor Moon.

Austin, Monday, 13 August 2012 22:20 (9 months ago) Permalink

feel like "Only Son of the Ladies Man" = perfect sequel to Leonard Cohen's "Death of A Ladies Man"

the choogler and the chosen one (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 13 August 2012 23:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

really? no one else likes this? just me?

humph

Shameful Dead Half Choogle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 August 2012 16:51 (9 months ago) Permalink

they played track yesterday on the cbc and i really liked it - just haven't had a chance to check out more.
i was surprised how much it made me laugh!

Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 16 August 2012 17:32 (9 months ago) Permalink

Witting A Novel - such an amazing song!

Porto for Pyros (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 16 August 2012 18:00 (9 months ago) Permalink

yeah def a highlight. the neil line is hilar

Shameful Dead Half Choogle (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 16 August 2012 18:01 (9 months ago) Permalink

2 weeks pass...

wtf his show at the Independent sold out in less than an hour!

I hate the internet.

chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 5 September 2012 20:15 (8 months ago) Permalink


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