Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
There's an immediate comparison to be drawn between Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket, to be sure. You can't help but notice the similar tones of voice of singer Robin Pecknold and MMJ's Jim James, and the lashings of reverb which accompany his and his bandmates' vocals (the guiding hand of MMJ/Shins/Band of Horses producer Phil Ek is very much in evidence); the opening chords of the title track even echo James' majestic "Golden". Both bands also fish in the same pool of mid-70s rock, where four-part harmony was something to be embraced rather than feared, and soulful sincerity rather than knowing irony was the order of the day - the voice at the beginning of "Meadowlark", for example, could belong to a young Steven Stills rather than a kid from 21st-century Seattle.
Dig a little deeper though, and it becomes clear that FF are doing something very unique - more classical, perhaps, and more restrained. While MMJ and Horses are very much rock bands, Fleet Foxes is the sound of a band steeped in the songwriting and production aesthetics of classic pop. There is an obvious debt to the elegant harmonies of Simon & Garfunkel, and a clear love of those tragically short years in the life of the Beach Boys when Brian Wilson pursued his obsessive, Van Dyke Parks-influenced foray into the heart of rural Americana: there's a touch of "Cabinessence" in the opening track, and the gorgeous, wordless "Heard Them Stirring" could be an outtake from Smile.
The band themselves describe what they do as "baroque harmonic pop jams", and this seems as good a description as any. There are hints in the sound, structure and even the titles of songs like "White Winter Hymnal" and "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" of older, more communal forms of composition, and the presence of mandolins, kotos and dulcimers reinforces the impression of a band taking the "roots rock" template very seriously indeed. There's a very old-fashioned emphasis throughout on things like melody, harmony and structure, and the result is a set of songs remarkable in their apparent simplicity and freshness.
Despite the complexity of the arrangements and instrumentation (and the plentiful collection of influences), Fleet Foxes have managed to craft a set of songs that somehow sound organic and entirely natural, containing a sense of purity, drama and sometimes sheer joy that's difficult to find anywhere else in modern music. That this is possible from a bunch of contemporary Seattleites is remarkable; that it has come from a band whose main songwriter has just turned 22 is pretty astonishing.
Mini review
There are those of us who would forgive a band almost anything if they succeed in pulling off a decent approximation of vocal harmonies allied to pop sensibilities (in my spare time, I still defend The Thrills at parties). What elevates this Seattle quintet above the rest is just how successfully they transcend those criteria. This is a record born in the Pacific Northwest but with its parentage stretching across from California to the Appalachians. Just when things start getting maybe a touch derivative, another vocal combination seems to tip-toe down from heaven itself, and the record becomes not so much an homage to those who’ve trodden this ground before, but instead feels like a natural conclusion. (Barry Glynn)
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