Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues

[bleedorange]

i'll take FF over Band of Horses anyday... they've only made one great album so far for me (and last one was pretty dull minus 2-3 songs)

 

Wow. I thought Infinite Arms was great. I definitely enjoy listening to that and Everything All the Time more than Fleet Foxes' debut.

[solace]

Wow. I thought Infinite Arms was great. I definitely enjoy listening to that and Everything All the Time more than Fleet Foxes' debut.

it was just a bit too midtempo for me... it certainly sounded great, but they've yet to put out anything since the debut that moves me as much as The Funeral or Great Salt Lake. i did really adore Compliments and Laredo a ton tho.

 

midtempo songs are definitely my least favorite if i had to choose between a slow song or a rocker, so when an album is predominantly midtempo it's always a crapshoot if i'll love it or not.

 

i think Matt Brook's writing input on the debut was a big part of why i loved that album too tho...

[Kalle]

i'll take FF over Band of Horses anyday... they've only made one great album so far for me (and last one was pretty dull minus 2-3 songs)

 

Yup I feel the exact same way solace.

[nodep5]

it was just a bit too midtempo for me... it certainly sounded great, but they've yet to put out anything since the debut that moves me as much as The Funeral or Great Salt Lake. i did really adore Compliments and Laredo a ton tho.

 

midtempo songs are definitely my least favorite if i had to choose between a slow song or a rocker, so when an album is predominantly midtempo it's always a crapshoot if i'll love it or not.

 

i think Matt Brook's writing input on the debut was a big part of why i loved that album too tho...

 

I struggle with having expectations, but for me I expect mid tempo from BOH. With the exception of a handful of tracks on the first two records, most BOH is midtempo. I guess I have never thought of it though. I just like the sincerity, the sound, the vibe.

[solace]

I struggle with having expectations, but for me I expect mid tempo from BOH. With the exception of a handful of tracks on the first two records, most BOH is midtempo. I guess I have never thought of it though. I just like the sincerity, the sound, the vibe.

 

true... i guess maybe my fault wasn't that it was mostly midtempo, but just kinda dull in a bunch of spots for me. i can dig on gorgeous/pretty stuff, but if it's boring i'll call a spade a spade (see the last Midlake album)

[bleedorange]

true... i guess maybe my fault wasn't that it was mostly midtempo, but just kinda dull in a bunch of spots for me. i can dig on gorgeous/pretty stuff, but if it's boring i'll call a spade a spade (see the last Midlake album)

 

Now we agree on something.

[nodep5]

true... i guess maybe my fault wasn't that it was mostly midtempo, but just kinda dull in a bunch of spots for me. i can dig on gorgeous/pretty stuff, but if it's boring i'll call a spade a spade (see the last Midlake album)

 

Well Infinite Arms was my favorite record of 2010 (a lot of nice memories there), so i'm biased, not dull to these ears FWIW.

 

Speaking of expectations though, I was really looking forward to the Midlake record. Saw the album cover and was thinking hell yeah. Boy is that a chore to listen to. Way to samey, minor key, i don't know. Not terrible but monotone.

[solace]

yep.

 

it was my absolutely biggest disappointment of 2010 by a mile.

Van Occupanther was my fave album of '06 too.

 

and i finally got to see them live last fall and it was also kind of a bore. *sigh*

 

like i said, it's certainly gorgeous, but that doesn't make it any more engaging

[Synthesizer Patel]

i was pretty down on the courage of others when it first came out, just because i loved van occupanther so much, but i've really grown to like it now - the arrangements and production are really strong, it's just that they made a decision to make quite a morose and similar sounding album - like the folk rock albums of the 1970s that it gets its inspiration from - when musicians didn't feel they had to change pace that much if they didn't want to. and it whilst those reference points are pretty clear, it also sounds modern as well. i can certainly understand that lots of people won't like that, but you must be able to hear that the arrangements and general musicianship is of a higher quality than fleet foxes. i don't even want to get onto band of horses, because i don't rate them at all.

[nodep5]

i was pretty down on the courage of others when it first came out, just because i loved van occupanther so much, but i've really grown to like it now - the arrangements and production are really strong, it's just that they made a decision to make quite a morose and similar sounding album - like the folk rock albums of the 1970s that it gets its inspiration from - when musicians didn't feel they had to change pace that much if they didn't want to. and it whilst those reference points are pretty clear, it also sounds modern as well. i can certainly understand that lots of people won't like that, but you must be able to hear that the arrangements and general musicianship is of a higher quality than fleet foxes. i don't even want to get onto band of horses, because i don't rate them at all.

 

Well, I'm not sure why BOH wouldn't even get rated I guess it is the old musicianship over orginality/sincerity/songwriting. In my world, people like Neil Young, Jeff Tweedy, BOH etc are preferred for the sincerity and songwriting skills that I feel they possess. While most could listen to Midlake and see they could play the socks off of the Fleet Foxes and for sure BOH, are they as engaging. I would argue they were holding their own but not as much on Courage of Others. But not to make this about Midlake because I also think they are original and can write songs. I just think there are a million great musicians but how many Neil Young's are there?

[solace]

yeah, musicianship means little to me these days... i used to focus mostly on that when i was 13 and in my guitar shredder phase, but then I realized Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are shit songwriters

 

as for Midlake vs. Fleet Foxes, for one, it's worth noting that the members of Fleet Foxes are quite a bit younger than Midlake.

[Synthesizer Patel]

Well, I'm not sure why BOH wouldn't even get rated I guess it is the old musicianship over orginality/sincerity/songwriting. In my world, people like Neil Young, Jeff Tweedy, BOH etc are preferred for the sincerity and songwriting skills that I feel they possess. While most could listen to Midlake and see they could play the socks off of the Fleet Foxes and for sure BOH, are they as engaging. I would argue they were holding their own but not as much on Courage of Others. But not to make this about Midlake because I also think they are original and can write songs. I just think there are a million great musicians but how many Neil Young's are there?

 

band of horses just don't do anything for me at all, i think it's for those 3 reasons that you do like them. i just personally don't find them original, sincere, or good songwriters. i explain below what i meant about "musicianship". really it's just having an ability to sound like you're doing what you're doing effortlessly, which neil young often does, and jeff tweedy did until a few years ago and will hopefully do again.

 

yeah, musicianship means little to me these days... i used to focus mostly on that when i was 13 and in my guitar shredder phase, but then I realized Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are shit songwriters

 

as for Midlake vs. Fleet Foxes, for one, it's worth noting that the members of Fleet Foxes are quite a bit younger than Midlake.

 

i probably should have worded what i said a bit differently, as usual, cos it's not so much that midlake are virtuoso musicians like steve vai and joe satriani (who personally i wouldn't even regard as great musicians as the sound they make is dire), it's just that they are talented in terms of arranging a piece of music. what i mean is what i said on the first page of this thread - a fleet foxes song from the new album starts off generally with picked acoustic guitar, then something else builds up on top (drums, whatever), then something else blah blah blah - it's not actually musically complex (where different melodic lines are put together to make a whole) and that's what i mean by musicianship.

 

fleet foxes are younger, but i just have a sneaking feeling that they aren't going to get better with age. i hope i'm wrong.

[Every Little Thing]

Midlake for me has always been one of those bands that I really should be into but I'm not. I've dabbled in their songs on several occasions and I would said comparatively Fleet Foxes are stronger lyrically and harmony wise, and even in originality for only having one album officially out and a second weeks away.

I disagree I think they will get better with age and I think that is apparent with the release of Helplessness Blues, which is so far producing some very solid tracks.

[Moss]

I like the John Grant album with Midlake better than the Midlake album.

 

Also put me squarely in the Band of Horses camp although I like Fleet foxes. I guess I don't see BoH being any more mid tempo than Fleet foxes (to my ears).

[nodep5]

I still think we all are (including journalists) a little lazy by throwing MMJ, BOH and Fleet Foxes in together, just because of some reverb and appreciation for Neil Young. If I'm being honest when I have grown to know these three bands, I rarely if ever think of the other two (so on and so forth).

 

But while we are at it, I will always argue that MMJ has some of the best albums that are awfully produced (or sound awful). I can hardly listen to At Dawn because I think it SOUNDS amateurish. Say what you will about the songs etc, they just sound poorly put to tape to me.

[Synthesizer Patel]

I like the John Grant album with Midlake better than the Midlake album.

 

i couldn't really get into that John Grant album at all. i didn't like the vocals and lyrics, way way too compressed for one thing.

 

at the moment i am really enjoying Bedouin Dress - i think that's a great song

[bigideas]

I agree on Courage of Others. They really dropped the ball and I'm not sure there are enough ideas to merit an EP. I think it's important that they regroup quickly to record a follow-up with an outside producer to introduce some change or they may sadly lose any momentum they earned prior to this album's release. COE sounds great, but is so same-y, even down to some songs maybe sharing very similar chord structures, and the exact same vocal harmonies on every song. I get the idea that they may be too cerebral at times and overthink.

[Moss]

i couldn't really get into that John Grant album at all. i didn't like the vocals and lyrics, way way too compressed for one thing.

 

 

He sure didn't hold back lyrically though.

[Every Little Thing]

The full album is currently streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135550848/first-listen-fleet-foxes-helplessness-blues

It's safe to say I'm in love with Helplessness Blues. Completely surpassed all of my expectations for this album. Phenomenal.

[rareair]

The full album is currently streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135550848/first-listen-fleet-foxes-helplessness-blues

It's safe to say I'm in love with Helplessness Blues. Completely surpassed all of my expectations for this album. Phenomenal.

 

I am also a big fan of the new record.

[bigideas]

The full album is currently streaming on NPR: http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135550848/first-listen-fleet-foxes-helplessness-blues

It's safe to say I'm in love with Helplessness Blues. Completely surpassed all of my expectations for this album. Phenomenal.

 

I've streamed about half of it and it is really connecting with me. Instead of trying to do Smile, I get a more Simon & Garfunkel feel. Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to picking this up now.

[LouieB]

Nice, informative and really long article in the NY Times today.

 

LouieB

 

 

Less Fleet, but More Mature, FoxesBy WILL HERMES

IT was the autumn of Robin Pecknold’s discontent.

 

Last October Mr. Pecknold, the singer-songwriter — hair pulled into a ponytail and reddish-brown beard roaming free — was nibbling an asparagus roll at a sushi joint on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan, fretting over what he’d thought was a finished album by his band, Fleet Foxes. He and the producer Phil Ek had flown to New York from their home base in Seattle to do final mixing at Sear Sound, a boutique studio on West 48th Street known for its analog recording.

 

But upon relistening to the tracks Mr. Pecknold realized that the record, in fact, was not finished. The final segment of a three-part song needed rethinking. Some louder tracks needed more punch. And, perhaps most disturbingly, certain songs and arrangements made the LP sound, as he put it, “like it exists a little bit too much in the context of contemporary indie rock.”

 

“I’m optimistically crestfallen,” Mr. Pecknold concluded. Outside the restaurant he sucked nervously on a cigarette, smiled widely but wanly, and bid adieu, heading back to Seattle and back to work.

 

Now the second-guessing is over, and the record, titled “Helplessness Blues,” is slated for release by Sub Pop on Tuesday. It’s a rich, handsome set of songs, often centered on acoustic guitars, marked by sumptuous vocal harmonies but with an emphasis on Mr. Pecknold’s introspective lyrics. It’s a throwback to the late ’60s sounds of Crosby, Stills and Nash; Simon and Garfunkel; and other period acts. At the same time, Mr. Pecknold’s apprehensions notwithstanding, it also exists very much “in the context of contemporary indie rock” — in part because his group has had a hand in shaping that context.

 

“Helplessness Blues” follows Fleet Foxes’ self-titled 2008 debut, a set of woodsy, imagistic folk-rock songs that struck a chord with a remarkably broad range of music fans. It sold 400,000 physical copies in the United States and 700,000 in Europe, striking numbers for a small-label debut of this sort, with equally impressive digital sales. It received a rare 9.0 rating from the tastemaking Web site Pitchfork, known for its 20-something readership. It was also selected as Album of the Year in an online poll conducted by National Public Radio, whose demographic skews quite a bit older. The record earned the band a spot on “Saturday Night Live”; on the coveted point-of-purchase racks in Starbucks; and, apparently, on the playlists of innumerable restaurants throughout the country that serve local produce.

 

The album also became something of a stylistic bellwether. Along with Panda Bear’s “Person Pitch” in 2007, Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” in 2009 and Dirty Projectors’ “Bitte Orca” in 2010 it heralded indie rock’s infatuation with extravagant vocal harmonies, an abstracted flashback to the days of street-corner doo-wop that feels appropriate to tough economic times, in its implicit low overhead and reliance on community. All of this attention threw Mr. Pecknold, 25, for a loop, and ratcheted up expectations for “Helplessness Blues.” Meanwhile his songwriting had shifted from the fablelike song narratives — most written before he was 21 — that defined the first album.

 

“I can’t go back to the place that allowed me to write that way,” he said last month via phone from his new home base in Portland, Ore. “Now I’m enjoying writing more directly about myself, I guess.”

 

The new songs sound like someone coming of age and thinking hard about his place in the world. The record begins with the declaration “So now I am older/than my mother and father/when they had their daughter,” the singer wondering what that says about his own life choices. On “Bedouin Dress” he weighs his tendency to take and not return — whether in reference to love or hedge trimmers he doesn’t specify. On the title track Mr. Pecknold considers his individuality, then decides he would “Rather be/a functioning cog in some great/machinery, serving something beyond me.”

 

A chat with Mr. Pecknold is a similar exercise in close self-examination. He begins an answer, doubles back to rephrase, punctuates his thoughts with qualifiers and apologizes for conversation that might be “too much like therapy.” Your heart goes out to him — it must be exhausting sometimes — but it’s also endearing and admirable in a world of flippant sound bites and ill-considered Twitter memes.

 

Mr. Pecknold grew up in Seattle, the youngest of three, and performed in musical theater in high school. His sister, Aja (named, yes, for the Steely Dan song), was struck by his talent when she heard him sing Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.” He was 14; she was 21. He began writing his own songs. She wrote about music for Seattle Weekly and started helping her brother when, amid the buzz over his band’s debut LP, touring suddenly spiked. (“There was a clear need for someone to step in and handle the chaos,” she said from Seattle.) As things snowballed, Ms. Pecknold began functioning as the band’s manager; their brother, Sean Pecknold, stepped in to handle photography. Even their dad, Greg, a musician himself, got into the act, customizing guitars and other instruments for the band.

 

Oh yes: the band. The guitarist Skyler Skjelset has been making music with Mr. Pecknold since the two were in high school. The keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Casey Wescott joined them around 2006, followed by the bassist Christian Wargo and the drummer Josh Tillman. Morgan Henderson, who plays woodwinds and upright bass, signed on during the recording of the new record. Mr. Pecknold has always been the songwriter, leader and frontman. But his centrality grew even greater during the making of “Helplessness Blues.” Rather than shaping songs collectively during practice sessions, as they did for their debut, Mr. Pecknold delivered songs that were more fully developed; arrangements were often worked out via e-mail.

 

The intimate lyrics presented a challenge for a group branded by its choral harmonies. “A lot of songs expressed sentiments that didn’t sound right being performed by four guys,” said Mr. Wescott, who wrote many of the vocal arrangements. Consequently Mr. Pecknold sings alone on many parts of the record or — on “Someone You’d Admire” and “Bedouin Dress” — alongside his own multi-tracked voice. On the five-part harmony section of the title track Mr. Wescott curbed his contrapuntal tendencies in favor of a unified wash of voices. “We treaded very carefully,” he said. “The parts were rewritten many, many times.”

 

Arrangements were also a balancing act, employing modest instruments that would not overdramatize the songs. They included zithers, Tibetan singing bowls (Mr. Wescott took a tuner into the storeroom of a New Age shop and tried more than 300 bowls until he got the correct tones) and a Challen upright piano, the vintage British parlor instrument best known for its appearance on the Beatles’s “Day in the Life.” (The band encountered one during a trip to Abbey Road Studios in London.) They all addressed the songs’ emotional koans in their own way. At the end of the multi-part “Shrine/An Argument” Mr. Henderson double-tracks riotous bass-clarinet lines in what amounts to a shouting match between id and ego.

 

The shift in Mr. Pecknold’s writing came partly of necessity. In early 2010 the harp-playing singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom asked him to open some shows for her. “I’d heard him play solo in recorded form a few times before — like the song ‘Blue Spotted Tail,’ which I thought was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I felt like a whole set of his songs performed like that, just him and a guitar, would really be something to see.”

 

Since much of the Fleet Foxes material was ill suited to a single voice, Mr. Pecknold shaped a batch of new songs as solo vehicles, and these became the core of “Helplessness Blues.” In March he even released three songs under his own name via his Twitter account (@fleetfoxes). One, “I’m Losing Myself,” finds him collaborating with Ed Droste, the lead singer of Grizzly Bear.

 

So what does this suggest for the future of Fleet Foxes? For now, Mr. Pecknold still has the desire to be “a functioning cog” in something greater than himself. He is looking forward to a band tour, which comes to the United Palace Theater in Upper Manhattan on May 18 and 19. For their next project he’d like his band mates to do some songwriting.

 

And in any case, being a solo act in the context of a band seems easier than the alternative. “The guys played a huge part” in shaping the new record, Mr. Pecknold said. “It wasn’t just about following my whims. I respect them so much as musicians, so when they tell me something is worth keeping, that means a lot to me. I don’t necessarily trust my opinions all the time.”

[welch79]

really looking forward to this.

[Kalle]

It's easily my favourite record of the year by a long shot, possibly one of my favourites of the past few years actually. I really think they stepped it up in every respect this time around and they came out with a near perfect record IMO.

[nodep5]

I recieved my vinyl on Saturday, I've listened to the first half twice and still letting it soak in. Too early to say what I think, but it is definetly one of the most beautiful things I've heard in a long time.