Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Sub Pop
By Kevin Hakansson
The likes of My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses have made it acceptable and, well, downright trendy for a band to strip everything down, grow a great bushy beard, and accept their inner folk singer. All sorts of groups have gone with this shtick to varying degrees of devotion and success, but Fleet Foxes is taking it to another level. Their brand of folk rock sounds as if they've added a few modern elements to some tunes pulled straight from a '60s war protest or hallucinogenic camping trip.
Fleet Foxes is kind enough to open their self-titled debut full length with a song that gives its listeners a taste of exactly what's to come throughout the remainder of the record. "Red Squirrel/Sun Rises" opens with the bands talented vocalists harmonizing a 4-part vocal line in a fashion that a college music theory professor would be proud of, before the song become a reverb drenched, acoustic guitar driven folk tune.
Harmony really is the name of the game on Fleet Foxes. Led by lead vocalist Robin Pecknold, there is nary a song here that doesn't feature at least a little bit of vocal harmony. In fact, some songs, like "White Winter Hymnal," are almost entirely driven by such a technique. Several verses on "White Winter Hymnal" are performed solely by the band's voices, abandoning their stringed and percussive instruments. Later, "Quiet Houses" is one of the most beautiful moments on the album. The band's guitar players strum and pluck quiet, relaxing melodies, Appalachian mountain style, while at least 3 voices croon the soothing "Lay Me Down" chorus.
While Fleet Foxes prove time and time again their mettle as a folk rock force, they also show an affinity for styles not necessarily explored by your average popular band. Pecknold plays acoustic guitar and sings in baroque style on "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song." The vocal melody and accompanying driving piano on "He Doesn't Know Why" is soaring and majestic, and just might remind you closet former alter boys of a hymn you might hear on a Sunday morning. And if that's not enough of a religious experience for you, stick around for the next track. "Heard Them Stirring" could be straight out of the bowels of the monastery.
Still, there's no doubt that the majority of the songs on this band's impressive debut are just damn catchy. "Ragged Wood" is bound to get your feet moving, even if you're not listening to it in a thick, wooded area (which is preferable). Later, Pecknold garners some well earned comparisons to all-of-a-sudden rock god Jim James on the hushed "Meadowlark," on which his voice is stunningly similar to the MMJ front man.
To call Fleet Foxes a throwback would be an understatement. No band in recent memory has made an early impact like they have playing such unabashed folk music. But what's special about Fleet Foxes is that while they're harkening back to the '60s, they're also not biting anybody's style. They're adding unique twists to put their own stamp on a sound many had forgotten long ago.
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