Image of Fleet Foxes courtesy of subpop.com
#19 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
In his article "Rockerdammerung", originally published in Baffler magazine, Mike O'Flaherty wrote this: "Indie rock still exists, sort of. A large minority within the indie scene was not able or willing to get signed; unfortunately, it almost seems as if they decided to fend off cooptation by making their music as repellently self-indulgent as possible. But the inventive formal sense that once redeemed those tendencies has vanished. Indie work still draws on other musics, but it now does so with the listless dilettantism of a yuppie browsing through the ethnic-foods section at Treasure Island."
Ouch. What better way to introduce this year's most divisive new indie act, Fleet Foxes? Their success isn't hard to explain - their pleasant folky sing-alongs are dipped in warm reverb and swathed in layered vocals. But the backlash against Fleet Foxes is also easy to understand, not because they're bad but because they are getting accolades they really haven't earned. Their album is good, but it's starting to show up at the tops of Best Of lists - is it really that good? The band's fans and critics point to the Beach Boys influence in the band's vocals and arrangements, but both sides are marking too much of it. The Fleet Foxes sound comes more from English trad folk like Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and the Incredible String Band. Although one nickname for the band I heard also makes a good shorthand: Crosby Shins and Nash!
I think that one problem with the Fleet Foxes record is that it's not got enough "Good Vibrations" and too much "Willow's Song" (you know, the folk ballad Britt Ekland sings as she strips naked in her bedroom in the movie Wicker Man.) The emphasis in many of the numbers is on atmospherics - the reason that "White Winter Hymnal" stands head and shoulders above the rest of the songs on the record, for me anyway, is that I can remember the how it goes an hour after it ends. The other songs have memorable hooks, but they rise unannounced out of the melodies to catch your ear and then disappear again under the waves of reverb. I think this is why people critical of the album often ask, "Where are the songs?" Every song has great moments, but the three tracks that follow the excellent "Quiet Houses" are so indistinct when taken in together that the second half of the album can seem amnesia-inducing.
You can accuse them of the kind of "listless dilettantism" that O'Flaherty talked about, but their album is still an impressive first full-length. And I've heard that their live show is excellent, extending their comparisons to My Morning Jacket further in the way they add muscle and energy to their songs in live performance. Of the songs on the record, "White Winter Hymnal" is easily my favorite - I remember hearing it the first time on a Sub Pop sampler earlier this year and being knocked back by its simplicity and blend of influences. You can find that song all over the 'net, though, and I think that "Ragged Wood" really tells the story of the line that Fleet Foxes walks between catchy pop songs and atmospheric folk. Maybe, with time, they will be part of bringing "the inventive formal sense" back to indie music.
"Ragged Wood" by Fleet Foxes
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