Review: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes will probably be a name that rings a few bells, three-sheeted, as they have been, all over poster boards and TV/Radio of late.  Winning a place in most critics’ ‘Albums of 2008’ lists, and selling more than 100,000 cds in the UK whilst doing it, you don't seem to be able to get away from these Seattle boys...

Why the delay in writing about them then?  Sadly, they are a band I have always ‘not quite got round to’.  Thankfully, iTunes’ albums for under £5 sale was the remedy to this and, in the midst of a whole wealth of soundtrack purchases (‘Batman’, ‘American Beauty’, ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, and ‘Blade Runner’), there was the album -  just waiting to be bought...and am I ever glad I did!

First, a bit of background.  Hailing from Seattle, the Foxes are a five-piece outfit that create, in their own words 'baroque harmonic pop jams'.  Originally going under the forgettable moniker of 'Pineapple', they switched to their more evocative current handle after a name clash with another local band (thank God...Pineapple?!)  The band were formed in 2006 and, building on positive word of mouth reviews as well as strong reactions from the Seattle music press, they released a number of well-received EPs in 06-07, before releasing their eponimous album in June of '08.

The album itself has echoes of Brian Wilson’s magnum opus ‘Smile’.  However, where Wilson’s work had its heart in the surf of California and Hawaii, Fleet Foxes evoke a feel far to the East of their Seattle home; the bluegrass and soft country of Appalachians.  ‘Sun Rises’, the first track on the album, could quite easily be straight out of the soundtrack to ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’, and there are nods to the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show and Chatham County Line.  It would be a mistake, however, to simply file this under 'country' or 'bluegrass'.  There is a country feel, certainly, but there is also folk, baroque, pop, and even shades of the irregular time signatures and sea-shanty guitar lines that indie math kids Hot Club de Paris have made their own.  

Although uniformly superb, when the album is at its best is in its transitions between the delicate and the expansive.  At one second, lead singer Robin Pecknold’s hushed tones interplay with a single guitar; the next, a full orchestra comes crashing in and the chord progression just soars.  Nowhere is this better seen than in the album's standout track 'Blue Ridge Mountains' - a piece which fights it out with Elbow’s ‘Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver’ as the most evocative, achingly beautiful piece of music this reviewer heard last year or this.  

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At only 39 minutes, the album should feel short, but in fact the minimal playing time only serves to accentuate how perfectly formed the collection is.  Besides, you'll want to skip straight back to the start and play it all over again anyway, so we're really talking about 1hr20, and I honestly can't think of many better ways to spend an hour and a half.  Stunning.