So, Fleet Foxes...

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

Little detours every now and then are nice, like the minute of piano at the end of "Fools Errand"

http://www.stereogum.com/1954233/watch-phish-cover-fleet-foxes-at-msg/video/

How embarrassing for FF

embarrassed for everyone, really

there's a fair amount to like on the new one but pecknold needs to work with a lyricist or something.

I haven't listened to anything since the debut but my word, "Third of May" is gorgeous.

Sometimes I forget this band exists and then I hear them and think they’re great

Listened to the new one a bit more and it's grown on me. It took a really long time for the individual aspects of the songs to develop and sort out their own identities. But, after revisiting fairly regularly, I have no problem calling it a good record. Would still consider it easily the least substantial of their albums so far, though.

guitarist and fleet foxes kitchen sink guy skyler skjelset released another solo record today called back in heaven and it's decent modern dream pop stuff. kind of early fleet foxes musical backing with mbv style vocals. nothing life changing, but pretty as heck to be certain.

Was just wondering what rock these guys were hiding under

pecknold's been working on the next fleet foxes album all year. his instagram is pretty active with updates and teases. he was actually in europe recording when quarantine first hit and was initially told he would have to stay put, but found his way back to la, and now nyc.

the pieces of the new material he's teased have been very "orchestral" and dreamy. i'm excited for it, whenever it happens.

same. Robin's gone from overhyped (in others' opinion, not mine) to underrated genius ... in part because he doesn't work quickly and disappears for long stretches.

first two albums are all-timers.

i'm probably upthread saying the same thing a few years ago.

agreed. helplessness blues is still able to just wreck me in the right vibe. seeing that material live was unreal.

Third album is really good too, just requires some warming up.

Yeah, I'd say it's a good album after listening to it about a thousand times. I'd probably still rate it third out of their three albums so far.

agreed! (xpost)

i appreciate his efforts to try new stuff / stretch / not make the s/t over and over, etc.

not that i would reject an album full of "Third of May," of course

lol, not only did i just post that ^ *before* scrolling up and seeing this thing i posted three years ago:

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

― alpine static, Tuesday, June 13, 2017 2:01 PM (three years ago)

i also said *this* four hours ago, about something different:

i'm probably upthread saying the same thing a few years ago.

― alpine static, Friday, August 28, 2020 11:24 AM (four hours ago)

something to be said for consistency, man.