The idea seems to be that it’s called “folk” because it sounds “folky”, or in other words that the sound of folk is an easy, chilled-out, wispy sound. I just can’t stand “folk”, if by folk we mean quiet songs with nice tunes, with vocal harmonies and acoustic guitars (and we usually do). I’m also a bit of a fan of Radiohead and the Phantom Band and the Earlies and whatever you’re having, edgy indie-wise. Not that this is necessarily of any interest to anyone but me, but… I was into folk (and ‘folk-rock’) in my teens, went off it when punk hit & got back into it a few years ago, with the result that I’m now a huge retrospective fan of Tony Rose, Shirley Collins, Tony Capstick and the great Peter Bellamy. All that “Apples in the summer” stuff in “The Shrine/An Argument” sounds like Crosby, Still, Nash and Young. The Pitchfork review also compares them to the Zombies, which I could buy.
But I don’t think Fleet Foxes sounds much like Roberta Flack. If you wanted to compare Fleet Foxes to something 70’s, I guess the smooth and flat but strong and soaring vocal style of Roberta Flack would seem less inapt, comparison-wise, than Simon and Garfunkel or America. And could be construed as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-ish. Which, come to think of it, sort of reminds me of the Beatles, “Two of Us”. If you held a gun to Vampire Weekend’s head and told them to play folk music, they might sound like some of the brighter, warmer Fleet Foxes tracks. If you don’t play it for laughs (seriously, click that link) you can play it for sheer beauty, which gets you Fleet Foxes, sounding quite contemporary. So you can map Radiohead-y forms and stylings onto folk-y or country-ish patterns and get something that sounds quite contemporary.
Radiohead is vocally flat/affectless and instrumentally droney and tick-tock yet also emotionally soaring so is a lot of folk music. Fleet Foxes sounds to me like growing up on Radiohead transmogrified into a kind of flat, plainsong-y folk choral style. Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes’ singer and songwriter knows how unhip this music is.” If you played it for your dad he’d either say, “Finally,†or he’d laugh and put on some Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, maybe even America if you stuck around. Their expression of their love for music (and making music) was refreshing three years ago, and that sort of thing never gets old.” Stereogum: “Helplessness Blues is a deeply uncool album. Pitchfork: “Their bright folk-rock sound wasn’t exactly “cool,” but that was sort of the point– it’s familiar in the most pleasing way, lacking conceit or affectation.
Somehow there’s this review meme that Fleet Foxes is coolly uncool. The mp3 album is only $3.99 at the moment, so I’d snatch it up, were I you.
(Guess it’s the ‘old news’ theme.) It looks like NPR has a full stream of the whole album. Favorite track at this stage is “Lorelai”, and someone has already made a YouTube video for it, using old San Francisco footage. That’s how many bus stops I went past mine, giving it a first listen. The new Fleet Foxes album, Helplessness Blues, is just great! Pitchfork gives it 8.8.