Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues, a review

In 2008 the Fleet Foxes launched onto the music scene with their eponymous debut, landing themselves #1 positions in end-of-year reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Times and Mojo. Their unique brand of baroque-fused folk struck a chord with many, and the time has now come for them to follow that success up.

In May they will release 'Helplessness Blues', the title track for which they recently released as a free download. The opening track 'Montezuma' is a slow repeat of their signature sound - the version I have unfortunately riddled with a few technical glitches - a minimalist and pensive reflection on life and impending death.

In dirth or in excess /Both the slave and the empress/ Will return to the dirt I guess/ Naked as when they came.

There's a slight rockabilly tune to 'Bedouin Dress', a slight threat to Robin's claim that the record will be "less poppy, less upbeat and more groove-based". The groove is certainly here, a Garfunkelian musing of bizarre lyrics (about an Arab clothing style, no less). 'Sim Sala Bim' continues, an equally magical masterpiece as the trademark chant of Harry Jansen - brilliantly breaking down with mandolin solos.


The strange lyricism returns in 'Battery Kinzie', told from the viewpoint of a dead man warning us "wide-eyed walkers" not to "wander through the dawn". It's short but sweet. 'The Plains / Bitter Dancer' by contrast is a series of distant howling, another precautionary tale (this time to the singer's "only son"); the fear here is much more noticeable, with a shower of disappointment as seen in "At arm's length/ I will hold you there/ There". Whilst one of the more interesting lyrical themes, the arrangement suffers a little from a perhaps too bright and cheerful backdrop.

The title track was released as a free download a couple of months ago, a parable on the problems faced by those too afraid to lead their own lives but would rather be "a functioning cog in some great machinery". It's one of the most musically sublime offerings, all harmonising and a beautifully rose-tinted aspect to the dreams of freedom ("If I had an orchard, I'd work 'til I'm sore"). The harmony assault continues in 'The Cascades', another track of a mountain etymology to follow their debut's Blue Ridge variety, a painfully short series of frankly gorgeous instrumentation.

'Lorelai' is a bleak address to a former love interest, a particularly dismissive bitch ("I was like trash on the sidewalk"..."I was old news to you then"); it's a bitter sting to said bitch, and it's strange to get so much musical satisfaction out of that. However in 'Someone You'd Admire' it's a different story; a worryingly resonant dilemma to anyone who's ever tried to get over unrequited love.


The lingering pain continues in 'The Shrine / An Argument':

I'm not one to ever pray for mercy
or to wish on pennies in the fountain or the shrine
but that day you know I left my money
and I thought of you only
all that copper glowing fine

Matched by a change of sounds, it's more aggressive (a manic saxophone at around the 6:30 mark, described by one Last.FM user as an "elephant orgy"), as they sing of wishing to be claimed by nature - "I will lay down in the sand and let the ocean leave / Carry me to in the sea like pollen on the breeze".

The track 'Blue Spotted Tail' is virtually whispered, a slightly disturbing paradigm on the fragility and almost futility of life. We then end with 'Grown Ocean', a beautiful climax of their trademark harmonies and reverie in natural phenomena. Throughout the album the music is rarely experimental or anything dramatically different from the debut - though The Shrine / An Argument certainly shakes things up a bit - but when you've pinpointed a niche so sublime as this I'd welcome no change at all. With the music scene slightly more welcoming towards folk acts now courtesy of a certain Mumford family, the stage is surely set for Fleet Foxes to seize the world - and this record is pretty much perfect for them to ensure that.

Rating: 9.5/10
Highlights: Someone You'd Admire, Helplessness Blues, Grown Ocean, The Shrine / An Argument, The Cascades
Avoid: n/a