Music Review: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Age hasn't often been an obstacle for burgeoning music acts, but artists in their late 20s to early 30s tend to make their most fully-fleshed, fully-mature creations. But 21 year-old Robin Pecknold has the perfectly weathered voice of someone double his years, and the honed story-telling capacities of somebody triple his years. Combine those rare talents with Pecknold's youthful vigor and it makes for some magical moments.
Another in a long line of fantastic Sub Pop releases, Fleet Foxes, the band's first full-length, builds and expands on the promise of their first two rousing EPs - including the overwhelmingly great Sun Giant EP.
If the pastoral electric new-folk sounds of groups like Midlake and Grizzly Bear are the current indie trend, then Fleet Foxes are effortlessly hitting stride with it and surpassing their colleagues.
"Sun It Rises" kicks off the record with intermittent swells of simple guitar strums and gorgeously rigid vocal harmonies. Studio version of the well-established live number "White Winter Hymnal" is a rousing rendition.
"Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" sounds as if it would fit snug into a Led Zeppelin acoustic set. Then the drenched choral blends in "Quiet Houses" ring like the best Smile-era Beach Boys songs.
"He Doesn't Know Why" is the perfect traditional ballad with added spunk, similar to what The Shins have been so great at recently - and if there are any flaws in the writing here, Pecknold is so skilled at pulling "the wool over your eyes" with clever lyrics.
"Heard Them Stirring" could just as easily be played in the medieval courts of old, where "Meadowlark" calls upon a time-honored tradition of McCartney-like acoustic plaintiveness.
My favorites - "Ragged Wood" for its ramble and "Blue Ridge Mountains" for its overarching melodies - hit directly on themes their label mates Band of Horses have been beating around the bush at for two albums.
But simply tapped out closer "Oliver James" is where Pecknold illustrates beyond doubt why Fleet Foxes will be (at least) the most important debut of the year. This band has an awe-striking ability to silence listeners and command their full attention - a trait many of their contemporaries have struggled for years to obtain, yet still don't possess.
