Fleet Foxes – Selft Titled Review
The Fleet Foxes have gone from relative unknown to next best thing in the indie scene over the past 8 months. The Fleet Foxes made a few changes, adding Josh Tillman whom is already established in the Seattle scene while getting pretty good reviews for their Sun Giant EP. I didn’t like their EP that much as it could not compare to their self titled debut. The album has been leaked from sometime but I think at this point the more popular your torrent, the better you’ll do in general. This band will be making some waves.
The Fleet Foxes have been compared to the likes of Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket, the latter I’ve never listened to and some people are accusing the Fleet Foxes from taking their style. I don’t really care for these things as a style or genre is not concrete and not necessarily about the music despite some similarities.
I’ve been listening to their debut album for sometime. I hate downloading leeks but when a lot of people say that they’ve listened to it and proclaimed it as one of the best of the year…you tend to get curious. It’s been finally released today.
This album looks like it’ll be critically acclaimed, so far with mainly scores of 80 out of 100 or greater and a lot of perfect scores to boot. From my own perspective, I thought this was the perfect album but the real question now is whether or not this album will stand the test of time.
The album opens with Red Squirrel/Sun Rises, which starts with all members singing in a quirky fashion before it actually begins with a nice southern/bluesy intro. This song starts off kind of slow with sweet harmonized vocals over minimal instrumentation. At 2:45 we get this cool guitar solo to end the song. Not the best song but great for placement and as a starting point; it was great not offering too much and just giving us a little peak.
The next track was as an internet favorite at a time, White Winter Hymnal which I had posted back in the middle November talking about what a great track it was. The Fleet Foxes didn’t have anything to offer then and their popularity really exploded with this song. I think I was a little hurt/angry that my publicizing of them did not really do anything and I didn’t really get noticed for saying “Hey! Here’s a good fucking song”. It finished as the #26 track of 2007. At least the Fleet Foxes are popular now at least and I guess I have more of a “pull”. Either way this track is great…maybe less lyrically but it’s sung incredibly well and musically it comes off as a great pop song. While this song is a catchy tune, after listening through the rest of the albums, this song barely scratches of their talent.
Ragged Wood is in my opinion by far their bread and butter. Musically rich and the singing is absolutely hypnotizing. Musically this song can be cut into 2 or 3 songs. It’s a bit like Red Squirrel/Sun Rises with the structure but there’s so much more in track. What’s angering me at the moment is that I can’t find the lyrics online but man the Fleet Foxes make me feel like I should go back for some reason.
I am running out of time review of the rest of the album but everything builds upon itself. Musically they add so many elements despite having top of the line vocals. There’s a lot that doesn’t meet the eye and even if you don’t hear some of the small details you’ll still come away with believing that this album is something special.
I definitely like every song on this album. Lyrically they didn’t stick with the White Winter Hymnal reverb and I’m glad because they showed off something that I actually wasn’t expecting. It really displays the qualities of a perfect album.
I like how the album gets better as you go through it. While White Winter Hymnal is a great song and all and will have the masses satisfied to begin with, it has nothing on the last half of the album which all flows really amazingly well and it should leave you amazed.
A great album for anything mood, whether you’re mad, sleepy, happy…it displays tons of emotion yet defies it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Potential top album of the year? Yep.
I feel bad for putting 4 out 10 songs….hopefully I don’t get into trouble.
Ragged Wood by The Fleet Foxes
Quiet Houses by The Fleet Foxes
He Doesn’t Know Why by The Fleet Foxes
Buy this album at: CD Universe/Insound/Amazon
[...] Fleet Foxes – Self Titled Rating: 5 out of 5 I like to pat myself on the back as one of the first blogs to discover the Fleet Foxes outside of [...]