Fleet Foxes Proverbs

Years ago… when I was a teenager…, I always enjoyed listening to the radio or to some vinyls while I was doing a puzzle. I could spend hours doing that and the more a puzzle had pieces the more I was happy. The puzzles I always choose were masterpiece paintings and the Blue Cloak, also called the Netherlandish Proverbs (1559), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was my favorite.
I'm not surprise that Fleet Foxes, from Seattle, choose a painting from Bruegel for the cover of their first self-title album (June 2008). The music has a lovely medieval flavor. Let's see how Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes frontman, described the sound of the quintet: “With the new music, we decided to put an emphasis on harmony, simple three- and four-part block harmony. The songs would be simple as well, songs about our friends and family, history, nature, and the things around us in the Pacific Northwest. Instead of complicated vocal melodies, we would try and use guitars and mandolins and banjos and other little guys to fill the melodic spaces in the music. We'd try and avoid conventional song structures, sometimes putting two songs together as one, or avoiding choruses and verses in favor of long vocal rounds and alternating instrumental sections.”
So here you have a unique and an attractive new sound inspired by groups like the Beach Boys or psychedelic bands from the late sixties or even the earliest sixties when harmonies where always in front (American Graffiti?). I don’t know if Fleet Foxes will do ten more like this one, but it’s a fine CD, except that Mykonos, from the Bella Union EP, Sun Giant, should have been included on this first record.

MySpace: myspace.com/fleetfoxes
Label: Sub Pop

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal .mp3
Fleet Foxes - In The Hot Hot Rays .mp3

Bonus: The Beach Boys - The Sloop John B .mp3
Dolly Parton - Jolene .mp3

Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes .mp3