Spring. The life hiding under winter begins to come back out into the open. There is movement again, though it never really left, it was blurred by shorter, colder days. As the air warms, wildlife starts to venture further from their respective homes. Following their four legged name brethren, Fleet Foxes have chosen spring for their release, ‘Helplessness Blues’. The patterns of the environment is something that seems second nature Fleet Foxes.
The band has sound, song and a persona that are linked to the life around them. Using amplification for the instruments and voices may be something that Fleet Foxes turn to only because of popularity. Integrity is never lost for The Foxes, however. Electricity is never used to make the joyful noise that erupts from their music, it only to makes things louder. The added push helps the choir like harmonies of the band to truly reach the heavens, a feat implied by the beauty of the combined vocals.
‘Helplessness Blues’ follows the folk rock sound of Fleet Foxes back into a world that embraces life. The music hits listeners on a deeper level than the I-play, you-listen format. There is a connection formed by the use of organic instrumentation structure. A bridge is built between the two main characters in the listening game, the player and the being played to. As “The Plains/Bitter Dancer” spreads open, the one note beat and airy acoustic guitar wanderings become more solid, hushed voices build in power, as throat and fingers coax the sound to life, the manner of delivery becomes one. The instrumental portion showcases “The Plains” making way for the “Bitter Dancer” to take center stage. The narrator knows that he should have paid attention to that inner voice of warning. The song travels, building seamlessly so that the sound currents gain and lose pace without losing the tracks intuitive groove. On the title track, a voice raises out of the crowd “I was raised up believing I was somehow unique, like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see and now after some thinking I’d say I’d rather be, a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me”, going on to mention that the owner of the voice is not really sure of where he, or the advice, is going but he will get back to you......”someday soon, you’ll see”.
That type of song structure, with instrumental building into crescendo and quieting as if the air is cushioning the sound waves, is a template for Fleet Foxes output. That is not to say that the songs all match. Like the aforementioned snowflakes, and nature itself, the music is varied and expansive. Song titles circle the globe, chronicling sights, stamping the tracks as they move across emotional borders: “Montezuma”, “Bedouin Dress”, “Grown Ocean” before heading back to their Pacific Northwest home (“The Cascades”).
The characters that inhabit these songlands are as diverse as the geography. “Bim Sala Bim” envisions a budding love, balancing personal reservations with the draw of wants while “Someone You’d Admire” crawls into a mind that wants to give all the inner voices flesh to better understand why we do what we do.
There seems to be a need, at times, to put Fleet Foxes into a sound alike box. Maybe that is a way to understand the band and their music. References such as Crosby, Still and Nash are attached. Vocally, the voices in the band lock in, roles are defined and the results come through like they were born as one blood, so, yeah, CSN, maybe The Beach Boys. The folk rock sound lands on them more as default rather something that the band set out to make. It is, like the harmonies, organic. It is the sound of Fleet Foxes. Like their forest bred ancestors, the element that makes this music such a joy to be part of is the magic that is laid out like the words and music. Fleet Foxes are easily the house band for Middle Earth, that kind of magic. Less potions and spells, more like relying on group consciousness, the combination of minds that merges the band and the community that are drawn to their music and songs.
This summer, Fleet Foxes will be traveling across the physical ocean, moving between shows in the UK and Europe and a July jaunt in the US. More on Fleet Foxes dates can be found on their tour page, more news, free music and videos can be found on their website. Danny McCloskey
