This Fleet Foxes record was recommended to me by my friend, Ch, who always has some great music tips (but also loves the new Mariah Carey record). Well, at first I checked it out online and really wasn't that into the Fleet Foxes. They sort or sound like Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket (the cool kids say "MMJ"), but it never hits. You know the band never crashes in. Being a child of the late 80s and early 90s, I wait for every song to hit- for that moment when the chorus bursts in and I put up backwards devil horns (backwards devil horns are so much more satisfying- try it!). This never happens on the Fleet Foxes self-titled record. So I reported back to Ch that Fleet Foxes just didn't do it for me.
Later I was listening to my favorite podcast, All Songs Considered, and they featured a live performance of Fleet Foxes and I got super into it. No, it never hits. But the Fleet Foxes develop their anti-hooks around polyrhythms, unconventional song structures, and dark vocal harmony arrangements. In fact, this is a vocal record, where the instruments aren't really that essential and the unusual chords that the 3-4 vocalists make are very unusual- in the same way that Midlake had those crazy early Fleetwood Mack harmonies.
Anyway, after listening to the live performance, I was sold and bought the record yesterday. It's been on repeat rotation and we even played it at low volume while having dinner guests and it worked as great dinner music, because it sounds kind of like choral music. I really dig the whole other-wordly vibe that the lyrics give off. Again, it's very Midlake-ish in that way. It makes you feel like you're out in the woods in medieval times foraging for berries and herbs. So, I was wrong, the Fleet Foxes are right.
5 comments:
It's ok if it took ya awhile to warm up to the Foxes, P. I forgive you. I just drove back from the Sierras where I spent a music-less 4 days hiking on trails, swimming in lakes and star-gazing. As I started my drive home on a spruce-lined road, I found myself humming the melody for "White Winter Hymnal." I think I guess they were with me the whole time. :]
I freaking love Fleet Foxes. It's one of the bands i heard this summer that made me really glad. I read all this claptrap about them being into folk music and old timey stuff, and i don't buy it. They're totally beach boys sluts, through and through, complete with a Brian Wilson piano rip off.
You might also like Phosphorescent if you're into Fleet Foxes right now. It's a little too pretty, but somewhere b/t FF and Bonnie Prince Billy.
And i also see them as being part of this new "Country Emo" genre-- Band of Horses, Beachwood Sparks... all Sub Pop bands. It's really puzzling to me, but interesting. It's like the Lucero of the 2000's.
yes, very true about the beach boys. i was totally hearing that.
leif, i like this phosphorescent guy. thanks for the rec!
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