So, Fleet Foxes...

I wouldn't know, I only ever listen to them when I'm driving home from the Bowls club.

And woe betide anyone who fails to toe the party line - the M+M whip will decry you as "contrived."

The hype has certainly been off-putting, but my jury's out on them thus far. It all sounds very pretty, especially the vocals; I'll give them that much at least.

They strike me very much as a group for the kind of people who won't admit to liking Coldplay.

I dunno, they're a lot more low-key than Clodpole, I didn't really get any sense of stadium aspirations.

Given the descriptions, this is the sort of Southall music I'd probably find a bit dull, because I have "no heart". As opposed to the sort of Southall music that appeals to the subjective heart I do have. Still, I'll give them a go at some point.

The first time I heard White Winter Hymnal and Ragged Wood it made my heart want to burst.

So you'll probably hate them, Louis...

This is the CD of the month mailed out by the Rough Trade Album Club, but I haven't had a chance to listen to it. It came with a bonus disc of extra songs.

Plenty going for £4 in MVE in a month's time then.

There's something saccharine in the harmonies that's oft-putting.

Yeah I'd go with that, but then I don't even like the Beach Boys.

I'd say less Coldplay, more the Magic Numbers without the fat jokes.

The first time I heard White Winter Hymnal and Ragged Wood it made my heart want to burst.

I had the same reaction to White Winter Hymnal. And the saccharine harmonies are what make them appealing to me. Just bought the full disc.

I don't like The Beach Boys either!

the Magic Numbers without the fat jokes.

lolololol

overall they just sound like a really dull, asset stripped version of My Morning Jacket's quieter moments.

amen. not into it.

Good name that doesn't fit the music - nice vocal sounds, but the predictable, uninteresting chord progressions render the overall effect lifeless and drab.

Counting Crows for a (slightly) different demographic.

Great drum sound.

Not really getting the Counting Crows thing. Light, beatific, joyous vs overwrought emotional trauma?

50% Shins, 50% Midlake for me. Nice, but a bit uninteresting stuff.

Not getting the Coldplay thing, either. "Hello clouds, hello sky, hello ickle pretty birdies..." vs. "Meh, bit miserable, shall I kiss it better..."

Specifically the start of Ragged Wood reminds me of the "each day / spend it with you / yeah" bit in that Grizzly Bear song when the hammond gets going and everything notches up tempo-wise and IT'S AWESOME. Those drums make me want to run into the mountains forever and live in a delirious cabin.

Oh Mike, btw, I think you might dig the Shearwater album if you've not already heard it.

I prefer Grizzly Bear doing it.

How can you scratch your head at Coldplay yet savour those apnoeic cacafuegos Elbow?

Hahahaha, I love you, Marcello.

I prefer Grizzly doing it too, just about, but that doesn't mean I don't like Fleet Foxes doing it, at least for the moment.

Elbow do everything Coldplay do but with a better singer, better lyrics, better rhythms, more interesting songs, a wider emotional palette, a better guitarist and less grade 1 piano.

Oh Mike, btw, I think you might dig the Shearwater album if you've not already heard it.

Man, Shearwater strikes me as a really dull, plodding, flat-sounding band. The :30 samples from their new disc haven't changed my mind yet. When I hear or read someone say "Indie-Schmindie," or some other snide, I think they're talking about bands like Shearwater and Okervil River. I know some people are passionate about those bands, tho. Maybe just not for my (old) ears (damn kids with their crazy rock music).

RONG (xpost)

Nothing wrong with Grade I piano when emotions demand it. If only Elbow had some Cecil Taylor piano, it might drown out the drear ramblings of Guy "Ventolin Man" Garvey.

Elbow are what people think Embrace are like.

Hahahaha!

Daniel, Esq., I'm not familiar at all with Shearwater pre Rook, but Rook is some pretty awesome, folk-rock-ambient shit.

My first impressions were a bit premature, "He Doesn't Know Why", "Heard Them Stirring" and "Your Protector" are truly beautiful songs.

I'm looking forward to the Hova "Your Protector" remix: "You walk along the stream BOUNCE, BOUNCE/Your head caught in a waking dream IT'S YA BOYY
Your protector's coming home and you don't STOP &c."

Not really getting the Counting Crows thing. Light, beatific, joyous vs overwrought emotional trauma?

I just meant Counting Crows in the wearing-influences-on-sleeve/static background muzak kinda way.

"white winter hymnal" excepted, the album is a huge letdown after the e.p. the hype these guys are getting is a little overbearing, kind of like the obnoxious liner notes on the sleeve of the cd--a lot of positioning how we're supposed to receive and listen to them, what bands we're supposed to be hearing as influences that these fleet foxes are upgrading for us

See, in the old days you had, say, a Buffalo Springfield album, and all you got was maybe a picture of the band on the front and another on the back plus personnel details, track listing and other relevant credits and you had to work the rest out for yourself instead of being spoonfed.

That's not entirely true, Marcello, is it? If anything you get less info on record sleeves these days cos it';s all on fucking Facebook.

CD packaging is pathetic these days. All you get is a picture of the artist on the front and maybe another on the back plus track listings, personnel details (if you're lucky) and other relevant credits (not always) and so you have to work the rest out for yourself instead of being given proper information what you've paid your hard earned £16 for innit.

Elbow do everything Coldplay do but with a better singer, better lyrics, better rhythms, more interesting songs, a wider emotional palette, a better guitarist and less grade 1 piano.

And more imaginative/adventurous arrangements/production, greater emotional acuity and honesty, a sense of genuine rather than ersatz connection with their listeners, a total lack of pomposity... I could go on!

Oh Mike, btw, I think you might dig the Shearwater album if you've not already heard it.

Just playing "Red Sea, Black Sea" now. Hmm, starts off like Richard Thompson, and then it all expands outwards and kind of goes WAAAA! Yes, not bad at all.

As for Grizzly Bear: I didn't like that Crystals cover at all, sorry. But hark, what's this... "Knife"... ooh, much more like it...

Rook is some pretty awesome, folk-rock-ambient shit.

Okay, this is the new one, yes? It's on eMusic. I'll investigate.

Nope, I can't get with endlessly played on R2 because he's a DJ on 6Music glumdar 1974-style soft rock The Fortunes if they'd lost a fortune Ovaltine-inciting peddlers of dribbling Harvester schmindie Phil and Kirstie-approved mock-pop Elbow.

First album was quite good, though.

Well, you have to put "Grounds For Divorce" and "One Day Like This" within the context (i.e. loss and love) slash hem-hem Emotional Arc of the album innit. Try "Starlings" and "The Bones Of You" instead?

I have no tolerance of "Grounds For Divorce," even when it was originally recorded by the Levellers under the title "Just The One."

I really want to like a band that can actually, truly sing. But I'm not sure about these guys.

Funny, I really like Grizzly Bear but it never occurred to me to make the comparison. Mostly it just seems very Shins-like but without the hooks and with a folkier, more pastoral feel.

And of course it was Fleet Foxes who supported Elbow at the RFH a couple of nights ago, as part of Massive Attack's Meltdown. (<a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/06/meltdown_fleet_foxes_vs_elbow.html";>Guardian review is here</a>.) Ooh look, a Judee Sill cover!

Just playing the album for the third (or maybe fourth) time, and really feeling it right now. Beatific, yes. "White Water Hymnal", GOD yes. But then soppy beatific pastoralism does go quite a long way with me...

Bloody BBcode...

I enjoy this band. They were really great live. Spot-on harmonies and a great handle on dynamics.

But I snickered when I saw someone call them Crosby Shins Nash and Young.

No 8 in the midweeks.

This is terrible music

something to be said for consistency, man.

apparently fflp4 is titled shore and will be streamed in full tomorrow at fleetfoxes.co

ok, sure ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

stooooooooked

WAIT pic.twitter.com/JnxD8tcoB9

— Brandon (@blgtylr) September 21, 2020

the actual cover is gorgeous. i'm too lazy to find it and post it, though.

streaming at 6:31 a.m. Pacific tomorrow, i guess to line up w/ the autumnal equinox?

i wanna get up and listen but then my wife would say "oh so you can get up early for Fleet Foxes, but not for work, to get the kids ready, to exercise, etc."

(and rightly so)

The whole thing is on Spotify now. It's really good.

Gave it a (very) distracted listen while working today and it sounded good indeed, but I'm looking forward to giving it some proper attention over the weekend (not to turn into a cliché but a long autumn walk seems like a perfect opportunity to properly enjoy it).

i don't think i've seen p4k do a tweet like this before ... although maybe there is no other example? or maybe i just missed it.

Best New Music x5

Read all the reviews here: https://t.co/zTOVfU0yMa pic.twitter.com/6c5LHOJl0K

— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) September 23, 2020

i don't disagree with the praise, but fuck narcissistic pfork assholes. yes, i'm on my high horse right now, but robin deserves a better audience than that.

who are pfork assholes?

I haven't heard anything of theirs since the first album mainly because the rave reviews all make their music sound incredibly unappealing

About a third of the new album has stood out for me so far--Crack-Up and Sun Giant are still the only two releases of theirs that I like front-to-back.

Aspects of the production and vocal performances on Crack-Up really reminded me of Phil Elverum fwiw, so it's a mildly interesting coincidence to me that Shore is out around the same time as Microphones in 2020.

Something about the drumming on this new one feels really different. Can't put my finger on why just yet. Maybe it's a rhythmic rather than a sonic thing. Like a few of the songs are more propulsive than I'm used to with FF material.

I've only really started coming round to The Crack-Up recently, always felt it was almost certainly good just a bit impenetrable.

This one is a lot more fresh faced feeling.

"I'm Not My Season" is very nice. did they always sound this much like Leonard Cohen? need to re listen to the old ones maybe.

This sounds a bit like Christian rock.

They've always given me church vibes. Maybe it's the "choral" aspect. Idk, never really bothered me honestly.

Singer’s voice is obviously really great but I also enjoy the rhythms and the band on something like “cradling mother”

Devil walk by?devil wakin by

this new one completely passed me by, don't remember a single thing about it

same...it's a lovely record, but it's like a breath of fresh air..doesn't last that long.

Hmm, the opposite for me. It felt nebulous in first listen but I find myself continuing to come back to it. I find it a very comforting album.

i really liked the crack-up, had some edges that were shorn down for this new one

I’ve been feeling the itch to return to that album, which I liked but don’t really remember aside from a few tracks. It seems to have gotten a critical reassessment already.

Still kind of baffled by the release strategy for Shore, still not out on vinyl/CD for another full month.

It’s one of those that I keep saving for the right time to play it but that time never seems to come

xp think it might be as simple as Robin wanted to released it on the autumn equinox (possibly in 2020, specifically / he has a thing with numbers, iirc) and vinyl is super delayed but he didn't want to push it back?

Sure, I know the equinox release strategy thing and production delays are surely a factor, but a six month lag seems to be on the extreme end.

yeah, i'm a little confused honestly. i got a message from the retailer telling me my pre-order (plain old black vinyl) has been delayed from mid-january to now mid-march, but i keep seeing people on instagram posting photos of their copies.

seems like it was about six months turnaround time for the latest fiona apple album from when it was on streaming to to when i could hold a copy in my hands.

it's the new model and i do not like it.

ha, yeah, not sure I like this much of a gap. No doubt COVID and weather issues all over the country won't be helping things out much on that front.

Looks like it came out in the EU/UK a few weeks ago, so maybe that's how you are seeing people with a copy? This is according to their official store for both CD and vinyl:

EU & UK Orders: February 5, 2021.
Everywhere Else: March 19, 2021.

this is nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTwhDOha4-U

Lovely new single with big red machine “Phoenix”

I was a bit late to this album, but Shore is such a pleasure to listen to.

there is zero chance that i would have said this a year ago, but "i'm not my season" has defined itself as the easy highlight of shore for me. and the album overall is a lot more substantial than i gave it credit for. i was also jamming nothing but 80s and 90s r+b at the time, perhaps an influence?

anyway yeah, solid 4.5 mics in the source in 1996. great album.

That’s my favorite track too.

I love this album.

otm

My second favorite track might be "A Long Way Past the Past".

Back to Crack-Up for the past couple of days and have just now put on Shore for the first time in several months. Crack-Up makes a lot more sense (and sounds better) in retrospect, but wow Shore really is a damn fine record. I've always understood their records to be the kind that will most likely get better with time and Shore definitely feels like another one of those. He really is mining that late 60s Capitol studio vibe for all it's worth and I absolutely love it. Not sure if I'd consider it their single best album, but it's definitely in contention.

For sure, Shore is great
I can never revisit enough

Missed this. Wish there was more with the choir. The albums have become such huge productions that I've forgotten how good of a guitarist he is. Nothing revelatory, but still quite nice.