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Fleet Foxes: s/t

10th June 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

We're not usually ones for making each opinion on a band an exhaustive map of band references and intricate genre descriptions. For the most part, because if you describe 'band A' as being like 'band B' with a little bit of 'band C' thrown in, how then do you describe 'band B'. There're only so many letters. It has nothing to do with our limited musical knowledge presumably resulting in us proclaiming that everything sounds 'a bit like Coldplay'.

Yet one comparison is unavoidable with Fleet Foxes, they run a tandem with fellow Americans Bon Iver. They both deal in isolated folk-indie driven by acoustic guitar overlaid with haunting vocals which are often embellished with a swelling backing band. However, where Bon Iver crafted a compelling and mesmerising take which rarely stuttered through to the finish, Fleet Foxes make more than a few missteps.

Most of the folk de rigueur are adhered to, from the bluegrass vocal harmony on the introductory song through to the tambourine happy percussion section, yet on more than one occasion, the promise of the song is not delivered on. "Oliver James" while having subject matter which could reduce grown men to bawling heaps of wreckage, nonetheless falls way short of invoking the same resonance into the music that accompanies it. Instead taking the path of “so lo-fi it's barely 'fi' at all”.

When the Foxes do get it right though, the results are likely to leave more than a few pounds of brain matter slinking down the wallpaper. "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" should be a blip on the impression-o-meter due to its stripped down nature of a simple arpeggiated guitar with Robin Pecknold's solo vocals, and yet through the sheer power of his voice, he erupts the song above and beyond the clouds. This is a landmark which remains a towering presence of monolithic proportions within the entire album. He indeed owns that most hallowed of voices, one which hits the heights of oxymoronic, by being simultaneously as rough as Essex girls, yet as smooth as Antarctic snow.

Marking a slightly lesser peak is "He Doesn't Know Why", which possesses such an easy melody and yet captures the kind of power that your garden variety band would enlist the knights of Camelot to help them secure. (bring coconuts!)

Fleet Foxes are likely another band to be hyped beyond their means, such is the thirst for genuine and meaningful music that people will grab even the merest hint of it with both hands and fervently proclaim to 'never let go'. On occasion, Fleet Foxes' debut is deserving of such adulation, at other times it is too uneven to solidly deliver on such lofty expectations.

Rating:  7 / 10

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