Sunday, June 29, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews

Fleet Foxes

“Fleet Foxes” (Sub Pop)

“Everything old is new again,” as the saying goes, and Seattle’s Fleet Foxes prove the truth of that adage. The quintet is driven by sumptuous vocal work mixing dark, old-timey backwoods roots, sunshiny Beach Boys/West Coast fizz, Crosby, Stills and Nash’s classic harmonies and early Simon & Garfunkel chamber folk. Add Jim James’ (My Morning Jacket) approved falsetto and the songs take flight, gracefully floating like seagulls over the ocean.
  
At first somewhat sweet, about halfway in this full-length album (a well-received EP was released last year) gently erupts in a thrilling confluence of acoustic pianos, organ, guitars, vivid percussion and soaring, reverb-enhanced voices. Neither precious nor pretentious, the band creates beautiful music that naturally swoops and glides on its own wind power.

There’s nothing outwardly religious here, yet like David Crosby’s first solo album, it’s informed by a somewhat spooky vibe that echoes old spiritually based choral music. Although recorded in various members’ homes, the pristine attention to sonic detail and the clean, near meticulous sound—perhaps at odds with the group’s decidedly retro stance—forms an impressive, goose bump-raising audio cushion.

The disc even looks ancient, with its complex Renaissance painting artwork and gatefold vinyl album-styled sleeve. Tracks such as “White Winter Hymnal,” “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and “Heard Them Stirring” complete the effect for an album truly out of time, yet strangely contemporary and, even with so many obvious influences, thoroughly unique. 3 STARS—Hal Horowitz