Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

Album of the year so far. By a mile.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQARpfke4WdVdetuS-0uOLN4gE0nIjPiwj5_is45N6h8Xis42tRSw&t=1

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

how 'bout "feh"

fleet fauxes

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.

like a diet soda?

a bottle of sleeping pills and a goodbye note

this is great y'all are crazy

granted I'm only on the first song, haha

so this is basically a Simon & Garfunkel record

And you must worship it or be destroyed, apparently.

hello inertia my old friend

warm... and mandatory

lol

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

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

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

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

kind of boring.

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

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.

nothing worse than a bunch of classically trained cellists

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

^^^ I really like this album.

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

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

this doesn't really sound like any Beach Boys record

harmonies /= Beach Boys

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.

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

Grateful Dead, too.

nah the Foxes can actually sing

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.

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

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

CSN(Y) is right on the money I think

this Father John Misty album is really good btw

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

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

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

really? no one else likes this? just me?

humph

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!

Witting A Novel - such an amazing song!

yeah def a highlight. the neil line is hilar

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

I hate the internet.