Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 46-50 of 54
 You'd be missing out on something special... June 11, 2008
Mr. Oc Godfrey (Bristol, UK)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The first time I heard most of this album was live. That was last night. After the gig I bought the album (I'd already pre-ordered it, sorry Amazon!). Today I've listened to it about 15 times, and it's revealing a slow burn appeal, if that's possible. If a better album's released this year I'll be stunned.
The EP is equally brilliant - Mykonos in particular is mind blowing.
If there's a chance this music could make you feel as it good as it does me, you should check it out.
Perfection! June 10, 2008
Mr. Simon J. Barratt (Biggar, Scotland)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This will be an untypically short review. If you want a perfect soundtrack for summer 2008 buy this album. Melodic and beautiful, a sort of Brian Wilson for the noughties. More folky than the Beach Boys and more than just a pastiche of Crosby Stills etc
Stand out tracks for me are:
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
He Doesn't Know Why
Your Protector
Difficult to pigeon hole (which is good) it should be the must have album for this year along with Elbow's Seldom Seen Kid...
I cannot recommend it enough. You will not be disappointed.
SB in Biggar
 Buy it. June 10, 2008
Mr Bungle (Ireland)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm always wary when bands get the sort of hype that the Fleet Foxes have been generating but I think these guys actually deserve the accolades, especially when you consider that this is their first album. This is great pop music and the exciting thing is that they are most likely going to get better and better.
There's major-press praise for a reason June 6, 2008
Mr. J. Milton (Brighton)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The opening seconds of 'Sun It Rises' recite seeing squirrels at particular times of the day...You can't help but feel slightly pessimistic. Then the anti-stereotypical country sounds kick in. Reverb carrying itself around the scenery, Robin Pecknold's truly beautiful voice finally gracing the stage. "Sun riiiiises....ooooover my head", and we're away.
Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut would be pretty much nothing without the vocals. If we were at loss for the hypnotic, soothing vocal melodies that you only discover once in a thousand bands, this album could pass as being played to old age pensioners on trips to Scottish hills - of course every now and again we hear glimmers of experimentation and diversity musically but we simply wouldn't have given the record a chance to highlight that if it were absent from its voices. With them though, it becomes outstanding.
This Seattle five-piece base every single song around melody and harmony. No matter what the electric guitar is playing at, no matter whether a more obscure instrument is making a cameo in the background or not - all you can focus on is the astonishing vocal harmonies. They are the very essence of what Fleet Foxes stand for and they are the very reason why this record is as special as it is. With the help of thesaurus.com, I can think of a thousand heartfelt complements to send in the direction of this record - remarkable, wondrous, phenomenal to name a few but instead of bragging to you about the amount of times I've lost myself to this album, I'll explain why Fleet Foxes pretty much tops the stupendous pile of stellar albums that have all come along at once in the last month.
"Come down from the mountain you have been gone too long" demands Pecknold. It's when 'Ragged Wood' commences that the album finally hits its stride. Sure, you won't hear a better opening three tracks this year, but although 'Sun In Rises' and 'White Winter Hymnal' are staggeringly good, 'Ragged Wood' is a statement of intent and equal in quality. Their country roots cannot be dismissed but nor can their input from various other musical districts - atmosphere is ever-present, particularly in the piano-thumping stand-out 'He Doesn't Know Why' - a song which fails to get your attention initially as you'll be getting far too carried away with the opening tracks. Stumble upon it though and you'll instantly realise you've caught one hell of a fish. "My brother you were born", Pecknold fittingly recites.
Consistency triumphs above everything else - this record never fails to deliver and nor have the band themselves, I'd go as far as saying they've swept recently released 'Sun Giant EP' off the floor. And consistency could be the foundation for that. Even the instrumental (bar the comforting vocal harmonies) 'Heard Them Stirring' wins a large chunk of our hearts.
The record swings from that relaxing enticer to the foot-stomping juggernaut 'Your Protector'. "You run with the devil!" they all claim - by this time we're trooping around like marching bands in accordance. 'Meadowlark' again turns the paces direction - a lo-fi sedative of a vocal track enters, accompanied by sweetly picked acoustic guitar. A state of relaxation kicks in and continues until the closing minute of 'Blue Ridge Mountains' - piano keys are thrashed about worthlessly, drum cymbals are finally pounded and every ounce of energy is served flawlessly with enough to spare for the equally stirring closer 'Oliver James'.
And so that's why Fleet Foxes deserve that large chunk of one-word tributes. And if you're an avid reader of MFM you'll know by now that I'm prone to getting carried away every now and then but let me whisper it; this debut record could find itself as my al*** o* t** ye** in a few months time.....
Hold me dear, into the night June 4, 2008
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The Fleet Foxes are a rock band that sounds like no other -- imagine a pastoral choir overwhelming a sweeping folk-rock band, in the middle of a sunlit forest in the spring.
That's about the sound of the Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut album -- it's a stream of lush, jangly folk pop, edged with a touch of baroque and country-rock. While their "Sun Giant" EP was an excellent introduction, it's nothing compared to the rough-edged grandeur of the full-length album, with its glorious instrumentation and vivid lyricism.
The only really offputting part of the album is the opening five seconds, when an off-key chorale sings, "Reeeeed squirrel in the morning/Reeeeeeeed squirrel in the evening..."
Then the song suddenly melts into a gentle acoustic guitar shimmering with keyboard. "The sun rises, over my head/Hold me dear, into the night/Sun it will rise soon in the morn..." Robin Pecknold sings with all the solemnity of a choirboy. His voice soars over the steelier riffs and thumping drums, only to settle down with, "The sun rising, dangling there/Golden and fair, in the sky..."
Wow. When an intro is that lovely, just imagine what the songs that follow are going to be like.
In this case, it's the shifting folky "White Winter Hymnal," with its kettle drums and beautiful campfire harmonies ("I was following... I was following... I was following the pack/all swallowed in their coats/with scarves of red tied 'round their throats"), followed by the endearingly energetic rocker "Ragged Wood" ("You should come back home/back on your own now!").
It gets no less endearing after that: Gentle bluesy ballads, jangly folk-pop with lots of squiggly mellotron, sweeping pop chorales, bouncy countryish rockers with lots of intertwined guitars. Things get quieter near the end -- "Fleet Foxes" ends with a trio of lower-key, folkier ballads, sometimes with nothing more than Pecknold's voice and a guitar.
There's something very warm and welcoming about the Fleet Foxes' music, and there's hardly a song on their self-titled album that doesn't contain that sunniness. And though the bittersweet songs focus on the usual topics -- family, love, lost friends -- there's a strong feeling of pastoral beauty, especially since they're sprinkled with meadowlarks, wood-women, "quivering forests," Tennessee and grassy graves.
In fact, the lyrics are crammed with vivid ("And, Michael, you would fall/and turn the white snow red as strawberries") and striking language ("I hold a cornucopia and a golden crown"). At times, the band's lyrics are pure poetry ("Wanderers this morning came by/Where did they go?/Graceful in the morning light/To banner fair/To follow you softly/In the cold mountain air...").
These songs are wrapped in lush melodies of striking music, which happily swirl together folk, classic earthy rock, pop, baroque and a bit of country. And an coustic guitar is the lead instrument here; sometimes it's all by itself, and sometimes it's intertwined with a smooth mix of other instruments -- hollow drums, rippling mellotron, steely guitar, and a hint of harp being plucked somewhere.
And finally there's Robin Pecknold. He sounds a little off-key in the spare ballads, but in the more complex songs he sounds sweet, strong and truly beautiful, especially when he does that soaring thing. And I have to say, I'm a sucker for the band's sunny chorale sound -- the harmonies really make those melodies sound exquisite.
The Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut is one of the best albums I've heard all year, with its blend of styles and bittersweetly lovely songs. Haunting and truly lovely.
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