Music : Fleet Foxes

Rating: - Dissapointing really
So,I wondered,what is all the hype and buzz about this album,so had to give it a go.
Basically it's the Beach Boys sing Crosby,Stills and Nash.It's pleasant,ok in the car for half an hour,but other than that it's rather tame and lifeless,bit dull if I am totally honest. Another over hyped band doing nothing very new,File under not bad but not of any great merit.

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Rating: - Desperately Overrated
I love my 'freak folk', my Newsoms, my Oldhams et al. I love close multi-part harmonies, and I love Sub-Pop records. Even so, I had my misgivings about picking this album up, having heard a couple of tracks which, while they sounded ok, did not exactly have me raving. However, I found a cheap vinyl copy and duly bought it.

Next time I'll listen to my gut. What is so surprising about this album is just how remarkably dull and lifeless it is. The frothing reviewers, virtually in raptures describing the 'incredible' and 'otherworldly' harmonies, have clearly never heard a Zombies, CSNY or Beach Boys record before, because there is literally nothing here that you haven't heard before and in a more lively and characterful form on a record by one of the aformentioned bands. I was hoping that Fleet Foxes would incorporate the harmonies into something both unique and new, but most of this album is really working at the level of pastiche or nostalgia, always an uninspiring approach for a debut. On top of that (and something of a clincher for me) the production is awful, as flat as a pancake with no texture in the harmonies, which are often buried under shonky sounding reverb. Cheesy instrumentation and, to be honest, uninteresting lyric writing of the 'hello birds, hello sky' variety leave this one in the dust. You want a properly weird, folk/country tinged, freak-folk oddity? Buy Mayo Thompson's 'Corky's Debt To His Father'. It has barely left my turntable for 6 months, and I have never heard anything like it, a soubriquet I sadly cannot apply to Fleet Foxes. Damn Shame.

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Rating: - A Breath of Fresh Air
This album, by Seattle band Fleet Foxes, is, in my opinion, a complete and utter musical breath of fresh air. This band, a hybrid combination of The Beach Boys and 90s alternative rock, are truly as inspirational as they are individual. With the music of the moment repetitive, dull and lacking creativity of any kind, it is simply marvellous to hear an exciting band with such elegance in their sound. Excellent use of harmonies, and breezy medlodies encapsulate this release, which features a wide variety of tracks, that upon each listen endear themselves more to the listener. A true classic, this album will hopefully catapult a talented and original band of musicians to the success they so rightfully deserve. If not, then the music purchasing public are clearly mad, or deluded.

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Rating: - Like Crosby Stills & Nash doing The Cocteau Twins......i think.
Fleet Foxes describe their sound on their My Space page as "Baroque harmonic pop jams" which on listening to their album strikes me as spot on. And who would know better than them they anyway? I've also seen them described as like The Beach Boys if they were a folk band which is also a pretty good description. I think they sound like The Polyphonic Spree if they had decided to do with voices what My Bloody Valentine did with guitars.
All of which descriptive overload leads me to compare them to various contemporary bands -Midlake, The Besnard Lakes, Arcade Fire , Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips though in truth none of them comes as close as I'd like so I don't know why I bothered. Think Crosby Stills And Nash trying to copy The Cocteau Twins if they knew them from press cuttings only......damm I'm back doing that descriptive thing again.
That's what a band as singular as Fleet Foxes does to you. You listen , you marvel and while you are marvelling you try to get a handle on what it is that makes them so special and you end up , especially for the purposes of a review ,writing florid descriptions and making spurious comparisons in order to communicate to any would be readers what you have listened to.
So they do that really cool multi harmonic voice thing over crystalline guitar chords , undulating percussion and hazy slabs of keyboard. Songs like "Sun It Rises" , "Ragged Wood" , "Quiet Houses" "White Winter Hymnal" and "He Doesn't Know Why" which is like rock & roll re-imagined as decorative pop , show this off to full soniferous effect. It veers off to the pastoral delights of "Heard Them Stirring " while a giddy flute flits in and out of the acoustic led stomper "Your Protector". "Meadowlarks" is a lovely balled with reverb drenched vocals and dew heavy dappled guitar while on "Oliver James" the voice of Robin Pecknold takes riveting centre stage.
Im not especially taken with the sparse "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" but it's really the only blatant mis-step on an album gorged with choral delights and some spanking tunes. Neither is the album the most immediate which is why I suspect it's got some less than favourable reviews. It's either that or there are a lots of ears around that need syringing . Fleet Foxes requires a certain amount of patience and dedication but it rewards that most handsomely . It's a wonderful album and I ,ve just twigged who they remind me of the most ....Panda Bear who released one of the albums of 2007 with "Person Pitch". Panda's and foxes, a shared inclination for nature and two living breathing marvels.

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Rating: - Almost great. My dilemma.
I truly love these songs and the baroque-pop ambition of this band, but less so some aspects of performance and production. The much-commented harmonies are mostly good, but I'm have my doubts about the pitching on a few (i.e. Heard Them Stirring), and if you're going to do this style, they need to be spot on. Don't they have software for this? Turning down the reverb would have helped this generally crude production. (e. g. the otherwise beautiful Meadowlarks). So sadly my favourite CD so far this year is marred by a poor production and that's what keeps it from 5 stars.