Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes have good chances to find their niche

Indie rock has many faces. It can be experimental, straightforward, simple and complex. It is open-minded and it is always ready to soak in any traits from any genre. So there it is a small wonder why new bands spring up all over the world like the bubbles over the boiling water. The world of garage bands is a real mine of completely unexpected ideas. Perhaps, many of them are not destined to become super popular but they do a very important job – they don’t let the music world to turn into swamp. A new portion of fresh thoughts comes from Seattle, a city that has cradled a whole bunch of influential bands and musicians. It is hard to tell what kind of influence Seattle based band Fleet Foxes may exert on indie scene but judging by their debut album their chances to find their own niche are pretty high. Combining the sound of psychedelically driven rock and folk bands of 70’s with a weirdly shaped gothic air Fleet Foxes achieve a pretty impressive result.

Fleet Foxes’ forte is vocal polyphony

Fleet Foxes is an album with a well-developed inner world, which is full of weird romantic and fabulous imagery. You rather have to feel it than to listen. It is if you please a certain contrast to progressive rock where the whole thing is focused on instrumentation. The record is a little bit lazy and passive but it is definitely of a kind nature. Of course, it doesn’t mean that the musicians treat their duties carelessly, quite the contrary, their musicianship arouses only admiration. The band’s forte is vocal polyphony. The songs abound with rich vocal parties that may consist of two, three or four voices. And this is probably that very thing that adds that unforgettable mysteriousness halo to their music. Take a look at Heard From The Stirring for instance. The track opens with a short but really impressive, almost Gregorian chant vocal intro and then transforms into a simple but really impressive instrumental composition.

Bright and all-sufficient release

The band uses a lot of studio effects almost on every single track, which of course only intensifies the atmosphere of mysteriousness and psychedelic detachment. But if you will try to imagine how Fleet Foxes would sound without those thick layers of delay on vocals and instruments than it becomes absolutely clear that the basis of their music lies in American folk rock. In reality, Fleet Foxes as an album is pretty simple thing. But the band somehow manages to avoid being caught in the cliché traps of this genre. The brightest track of this album is definitely White Winter Hymnal. It actually has all the traits that make this record so interesting – that is a little bit weird but memorable melody, great psychedelic air and unconventional song structure. Overall Fleet And Foxes is a bright and all-sufficient release. It has a lot of really positive qualities, many of which reveal themselves only after several listening. This record sounds interesting and fresh even despite that fact that for the most part it was based on the archaic ideas of rock bands from 60’s.