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Product Description
Review
"It was at times difficult to make this record," writes Fleet Foxes’ lead singer Robin Pecknold in the self-penned press release for Helplessness Blues, citing illness, creative doubt and reassessment as factors the Seattle sextet grappled with in following up their massively popular, critically adored debut album. Not that you’d know it from a cursory listen: Helplessness Blues sounds every bit as assured as their earlier work, but given time to unfurl in your consciousness it displays facets of the band hitherto unseen. Peppered with ghostly harmonies and references to aging – even breaking out into free jazz at one point – it is a bigger, braver set than that which precedes it, suffused with both melancholy and sunshine.
Setting aside the adulation that greeted the band’s arrival (something Pecknold himself seems faintly baffled by), you’d be hard-pushed to label what Fleet Foxes are doing as anything particularly groundbreaking. Rather, the band place themselves firmly in the lineage of folk/rock greats from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to Brian Wilson and Pete Seeger, suffering none for it. In Someone You’d Admire it’s impossible to ignore the knowing winks to their antecedents, but the panache and confidence with which the band shapes their harmonies and maximise their melodic touch is second to none.
Astral Weeks is singled out as a major touchstone by Pecknold. While his honey-sweet tones are a million miles away from Van Morrison’s ragged howl, this record certainly shares something of the adventurousness that marked that LP. Over the sprawling, segmented eight minutes of The Shrine / An Argument, the band traverse from haunting trad-folk to a deep, mellifluous groove before finally bowing out in a flurry of brass, woodwind and strings. The song boasts Pecknold’s most affecting delivery to date, until the subsequent Blue Spotted Tail makes a case for being the loveliest in their catalogue; a plaintive finger-picked ballad contemplating relationships and mortality against a cosmic backdrop.
Helplessness Blues is born out of a fraught gestation period, touched by doubt, uncertainty and the travails of growing older and finding your place. But it is also a thing of beauty, and as the blissful outro of its title-track or the breathless, exuberant surge of closer Grown Ocean demonstrate, at its core lies a tangible sense of wonder and hope.
--James Skinner
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The album is in many ways superior to its predecessor.,
This review is from: Helplessness Blues (Audio CD)
The plaintive harmonies and get-back-to-the-country imagery of Fleet Foxes' well-received 2008 self-titled debut Fleet Foxes helped define a musical movement of 21st Century bands in search of lost, 19th Century ideals: Midlake, Blitzen Trapper, Bon Iver. Now the Seattle sextet returns with the far more ambitious "Helplessness Blues" (Sub Pop).Though the melodies aren't quite as instantly memorable, the album is in many ways superior to its predecessor. The band's multi-part harmonies function more as a piece of the wide-screen arrangements rather than the dominant feature. The voice of Robin Pecknold is more out front and lyrically direct; against an intricate web of counterpoint melodies, he plays the troubled narrator wrestling with his place in the world. Employing everything from woodwinds to Tibetan singing bowls, with finger-picked acoustic guitars sailing atop rumbling timpani, the band makes a wonderful sound: rich but not overstuffed, intricate but not labored, virtuosic without sounding like anyone's showing off. The songs don't stick to verse-chorus formula, they're more like mini-suites that turn and twist without drawing attention to their complexity. If there's a shortcoming, it's that the band is almost too subtle for its own good; all that beauty and detail is rarely played for dramatic effect. When Pecknold's pristine voice rises and finally cracks on "The Shrine/An Argument", followed by a free-jazz freak-out, it's the type of musical jolt the rest of the album lacks. But such outbursts probably wouldn't make sense in fleshing out the album's central theme. "Could I wash my hands of just looking out for me?" Pecknold sings on "Montezuma". On the title song, he declares his desire to "be a functioning cog in some great machinery, serving something beyond me". In striving for more self-less version of self, Pecknold and his excellent band have made an album that embraces modesty. Which is why it may take a few listens for its rarefied combination of beauty and anxiety to hit home. In this case, another virtue that Pecknold extols -- patience - has its rewards. G. Kot The Courage Of Others For Emma Forever Ago Destroyer of the Void
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A happy man,
By
This review is from: Helplessness Blues (Audio CD)
My son and I share an appreciation of Brian Wilson, and he (my son) has been reccomending Fleet Foxes for some time. I bought this album, and I HAVE JUST BEEN BLOWN AWAY! I just cant get enough. Grown Ocean, Lorelai, Helplessness Blues. For me, it's all flawless. On a separate note, and although not on this album, the lead singer, Robin Peckfold does a great cover version of Crayon Angels, which in my opinion is better than the original. Can't wait for Fleet Foxes to come back to the UK so that I can see them live.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A return to form with much better sound quality,
By
This review is from: Helplessness Blues (Audio CD)
Overall i'm very pleased with this album. The fleet foxes sound is still in it, though as a whole it is a little more sombre than their first album. 'Helplessness Blues' the song of the album title is the most lively and likely to be the most popular, however the songs such as 'Grown Ocean', 'Lorelai' and 'The Plain/ Bitter Dancer' are also very similair to the first album (in a good way). The best songs on the album though are the 'new' sounds. These include 'Someone You Admire', 'Blue Spotted Tail' and 'The Cascades' which focuses more on acoustic and vocals than with the mixed in, quite chaotic percussion.This is an excellent album that's very listenable and rewarding to those willing to really sit and spend a while soaking it all in with a decent sound system as the recording quality far surpasses that of the first album where 'reverb' could be heard from the vocals. A must buy for any who liked their first album or any of the singles from this one except for maybe helplessness blues as the rest of the album isn't quite so 'pop' style.
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