Fleet Foxes A

Fleet Foxes self-titled debut LP (they’ve released two EP’s, one in ’06 and one this past February) is the flavor-of-the-month among indie rock fanboys and music critics alike. On the initial hearing, the album struck me as a collection of traditional mountain music from a non-existant culture. An intriguing, haunting, and slowly infectious mix of traditional folk instruments (think guitars, lyres, tambourines, flutes, piano, drums) densely-layered harmonies (earning justified comparisons to the Beach Boys), and odd, Decemberist-like lyrics (they describe it as “baroque harmonic pop jams”), the Foxes join the likes of Sugir Ros, The Polyphonic Spree, and Bjork as being mainly categorizable by their resistance to categories. And, like those three acts, they create truly enjoyable music with value outside its oddness.

Lead off track Sun It Rises feels initially like bluegrass, but quickly morphs into something akin to Simon and Garfunkel in Scarborough Fair-mode. Indeed, lead-singer Robin Pecknold’s voice seems to channel Garfunkel at times. The second song-White Winter Hymnal-is the most readily enjoyable, with other standouts including Tiger Mountain Peasant Song (in which Pecknold wails, “Look what I’ve become, I’ve turned myself into a demon”- an existential dilemma shared by folk singers and Pantera-style metal bands alike), He Doesn’t Know Why, the most traditional pop song on the album, and Blue Ridge Mountain. I wasn’t quite certain how to grade this album, but I give it an “A” because I can’t imagine it being what it is any better than it is.


Hear their music on their myspace page here. On a side note, Brother-of-Priest saw them before the CD dropped at a little venue in Norman, and he claims they are phenomenal live.