Issue 520

Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues Sub Pop On the cover of the latest issue of Spin Magazine, Fleet Foxes' frontman Robin Pecknold looks cherubic and pleased with himself. The headline to accompany the piece is 'The Making of the Year's Most Beautiful Album.' It's a title that's an intriguing one as, at times, Fleet Foxes are far from being beautiful on their second album. There's certainly a lot of gorgeous moments; the hushed intros, the lulling builds, the poetic lyricism displayed throughout by Pecknold. But by the time he unfurls a roar on the third to last number The Shrine / An Argument, there's something far nastier at work on 'Helplessness Blues' than a title like 'The Year's Most Beautiful Album' would seem to elicit. Throughout, Pecknold muses on his misery - from not being the man that he thinks he should or could be. It's an age-old conceit, and something that plagued his obvious heroes, like Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Simon, and Drake. There's hints of all them and so many more on 'Helplessness Blues', but what sets Fleet Foxes apart from the likes of UK contemporaries such as Mumford & Sons is that there's no pretence or artifice in what they do. It means when Pecknold sings "I was raised up believing I was somehow unique / Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see" before countering it immediately with "I'd say I'd rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery / serving something beyond me," you believe him, as he strives to be part of a collective whole. As you'd expect, Fleet Foxes' second album is a more collaborative affair, with the likes of J. Tillman contributing more fully to proceedings - it's why the saxophone blast that closes The Shrine / An Argument offers such a visceral thrill as the album comes to its conclusion. Anyone expecting a second album that sounded exactly like the first will be disappointed. What Fleet Foxes have done with their second album is move things along while still keeping their intrinsic nature intact. It's a worthy achievement and a wonderful album. Andrew Weaver