Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Opener 'Sun It Rises' is the aural equivalent of the world waking up, building slowly with lilting organ and insistent banjo.
The debut from Seattle's Fleet Foxes is a stirring combination of alt. country, folk and 60s pop, complete with gorgeous harmonies containing a sense of awe and wonder that cannot help but be transferred to the listener. Opener 'Sun It Rises' is the aural equivalent of the world waking up, building slowly with lilting organ and insistent banjo. There is an otherworldly beauty about the track and this is due in no small part to the vocals that dominate Fleet Foxes' sound. Layer upon layer of sublime reverb drenched harmonies pour forth from speakers and into ears.
'White Winter Hymnal' retains a hymn like quality that runs throughout the record; the choral vocals and reverence for the natural world displayed by Fleet Foxes imbues the record with added depth. There is a definite sense of place on this LP, and it certainly isn't the big city. Comparisons can be made with Bon Iver in this fascination with nature (song titles include mountains, meadows and woods), although they specialise in wide-eyed wonder rather than desperate heartbreak. 'Ragged Wood' ups the tempo with some rockabilly guitar, calling to mind a lighter Band Of Horses, and displaying pastoral psychedelia, while 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' is more downbeat, with a nod to Simon & Garfunkel in the finger-picked acoustics and rich harmonies.
Given such a start, what is impressive about this album is that it gets better as it goes along. 'He Doesn't Know Why' is huge; vocals that aim for the sky sit atop suitably large drums, simultaneously sounding like some lost 60s classic and summing up what Fleet Foxes do so well - mixing heroic vocals and layers of beautiful harmonies with joyous uplifting melodies. This is followed by instrumental 'Heard Them Stirring', a piece reminiscent of R.E.M.'s 'New Orleans Instrumental No.1'. It sits between the album's two most ambitious moments and glues the two halves of the record together in an act of truly excellent sequencing. The second of these moments is album highlight 'Your Protector'; haunting flutes frame solemn, commanding vocals, with Robin Pecknold promising "your protector's coming home", before his voice is joined by thundering toms and spirited organ. It is achingly romantic and is one of those pieces of music that arrive so fully formed you think that you must have heard it before, or maybe you just wish you had.
'Blue Ridge Mountains' couples the most honest and yearning vocal of the album with some delicate understated piano, and 'Oliver James' is a fitting way to finish, the eponymous Oliver promised he will be "washed in the rain no longer" as guitars sparkle like sun on water. Fleet Foxes are a real marvel - moments of unrivalled beauty and tenderness, the twang of southern accents and finger-picked guitars, gorgeous layered vocals that are saturated in reverb and a dream-like calm mean it's quite easy to see what everyone's getting so excited about.
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