So, Fleet Foxes...

I have a theory that it all stems back to one Beach Boys song,

nah it's not just that. The breakdown in Quiet Houses (around 2:31) is a really blatant Smile/Pet Sounds pastiche - the plunking 1/4 piano, the ascending plucked guitar countermelody. There are a bunch of moments like this in their catalog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxXqqGepCU

Right, but I meant without that one big significance, stuff like you pointed out on 'Quiet Houses' may have gone otherwise unnoticed.

That stuff is definitely there, but the similarities between Fleet Foxes and, say, CSN+Y or early America are much more prevalent.

yeah they're definitely more of a early 70s folkie thing to my ears too. And I think they arrange their melodies more like Simon & Garfunkel than the Beach Boys lol

I never understood the Beach Boys comparisons either. I have a theory that it all stems back to one Beach Boys song, to which a rather well-known Fleet Foxes song bares a strong resemblance.

I have a theory that many critics were trained by Pavlov himself to shout 'Beach Boys!' whenever a human voice harmonised with another human voice.

An aside: speaking of 60's group harmonies that were possibly influential on the Fleet boys — what about the Association?

turns out i like a fleet foxes song. who knew?

are you okay? you should sit down, elevate your legs, maybe take a sedative.

wait, sedative + fleet-foxes song might be a bad combination.

which song

I think there was one I liked, but then there was a grizzly bear song that sounded very similar to it but better and then I forgot about the fleet foxes song

Oh yeah it was this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afRPnsncupg

fleet foxes are okay. bon iver can be okay. sufjan stevens is okay. many indie bands that are pilloried endlessly are okay. if people can listen appreciatively to seals & crofts songs, they can hardly complain much about fleet foxes.

I think those are all examples of people that are pretty damned good at their craft, and all have a certain kind of tender yet grand style that can get very cloying in more than a small dose.

i think you can say that about a lot of pop stars, too.

and hey, i like beyonce a lot.

(in relatively small doses).

(apologies for the snark; by-product of late-night document review. i think you're exactly right)

Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes especially seem to have discovered this certain sound that is very pleasing and sweet and emotional but just over-relied on it to the point of it becoming maddening. It's like watching a movie where the Maurice Jarre theme is playing the whole time instead of just at key moments.

i get that. still, while it may be a reflection of my age or a desire to revisit my youth, if bon iver wants to record a dozen more albums that sound like toto, i'd be fine with it.

i remember that fleet foxes song (english house). it's good.

I don't think I've really listened to the Bon Iver album that sounds like toto. That sounds different than what I'm thinking of.

best example, iirc

From FB today:

For anyone who's curious, this is a short Fleet Foxes update - been a while! So, after the last round of touring, I decided to go back to school. I never got an undergraduate degree, and this felt like the right time to both see what that was about and to try something new after a while in the touring / recording lifestyle. I moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia, and I've mostly been doing that, but I'm working on songs and excited for whatever happens next musically, even if it's down the line. Hope all is well out there.

Best,
Robin

he should've stayed silent

I don't listen to this band but I think that's kind of rad, that he just went and got a degree

totally 100% agree with this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Next he's going to start making meta-art, acting in indies, doing installations, writing books, acting in soaps..

I still maintain that they're done. He will do music again in some capacity, but Fleet Foxes burned him out big time.

FB today

Hey

We have two shows happening next year that are ready to announce - the BBK Live festival in Bilbao, Spain, and the Vida Festival in Barcelona. Late June / early July. Many more to come worldwide, our third album is almost done and we're very... very... very excited

FF

sweet!

new one is very good

best band going, Pecknold is a visionary

History still out on that one but dude does harmonize well withhimsrkf

* well with himself

New songs so far don't exactly sound like a big evolution from the old stuff, but also I really liked the old stuff and I like the new songs too.

Dude has a very nice voice

I am very nonplussed by this new material. I'll still get the album and give it my undivided attention, as it's been one of my anticipated releases since Robin started to indicate he was doing music again, roughly sixteen months ago.

But, I dunno, all those accusations thrown at the last two albums of being needlessly complicated and too self-referential never made sense to me. But, unfortunately, it's starting to ring true with this new material. It just feels so overthought and too self-conscious. Helplessness Blues, in particular, had such a free-flowing, organic vibe to it, but so far this new stuff feels very stiff, contrived, and unnatural.

I really like the new album but I also think that ^^ is a fair observation\

i am all for Robin exploring whatever he wants to explore, but i'd be lying if i said i wouldn't play an album full of "Third of May"s over and over again until the end of time

was playing the newest amen dunes and my friend thought it was the new fleet foxes. wasn't interested in listening until he said that?

Robin is great at music imo and all the self-consciousness is a result of him growing up as a participant in the online environment, and once he became a public figure, seeing his role change from "having a voice" to "being a topic"

this is not on Spotify, is this not out yet?

This doesn't seem as revelatory as their earliest stiff bit yeah, it's still really good

Friday is the official release date.

Loved the debut for its creepy pastoral hauntingness but they completely lost me on the second with all the psychedelic excess

Saw him supporting Joanna Newsom last year and he was amazing. He played one or two new songs, some old stuff and a couple of covers, then did a duet with Newsom at the end of her set. The thing is his voice is just so flat out gorgeous that in general you want as few instruments as possible (or no instruments, where appropriate) in the way. Someone just needs to lock him in a room and stick a mic in front of him.

Well, going in for my first proper listening of the whole thing now and I'm feeling like my initial assessment a few days ago (at that point, just judging by the pre-release songs) was unfortunately a little too on the mark.

I mean, it's obviously very carefully crafted music and the overall wash of it all is, at first, rather pleasant. But, I don't know. It's so impenetrable and rambling. There are practically no melodies here, either. In the past, songs like 'Ragged Wood' or 'The Plains / Bitter Dance' were pretty dense, but at least there was something musical to latch onto. Crack-Up feels so monotone and un-dynamic by comparison.

It's definitely a very pretty, reverby album — it just all sounds like one long song. But, I don't know; maybe that was the point?

Also, this:

they completely lost me on the second with all the psychedelic excess

it just all sounds like one long song

Pecknold and FJM back on the same page eh

=/

i agree there are more drifty / wandering / less-melodic parts to this album, but "no" melodies? to me, Third of May, Fool's Errand, Crack-Up and maybe Cassius and Keep Time are all on par with the first two albums melodically

"Mearcstapa" on the new one is pretty great. I like the "How to Disappear Completely" bassline