Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Emerging in 2008 to widespread acclaim, Seattle's Fleet Foxes fused earthy, harmony-rich indie folk with a sense of lush pop sophistication that called to mind the late-'60s work of the Beach Boys, the Zombies, and Crosby, Stills, & Nash. Formed two years earlier by high school friends Robin Pecknold (lead vocals/guitar) and Skyler Skjelset (guitar, mandolin, vocals), the band's primary lineup grew to include Casey Wescott (keyboards, mandolin, vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, vocals), and Nicholas Peterson (drums, vocals). Mixing Baroque pop with elements of classic rock and British folk, the band quickly generated a healthy amount of label interest and caught the attention of local producer Phil Ek, who had previously helmed records by Built to Spill and the Shins. Signing with Sub Pop in early 2008, Fleet Foxes issued the Ek-produced Sun Giant EP followed a few months later by their self-titled debut album. A critical success at home in the U.S., Fleet Foxes fared even better in Europe and the U.K., where the album went platinum and landed atop numerous year-end best-of lists. Shortly after the album's release, Peterson was replaced on drums by singer/songwriter Josh Tillman who would remain with the band for the next four years until reinventing himself as Father John Misty in 2012.

With Ek returning as producer, the band began recording sessions for their follow-up LP, seeking a more cohesive, live feel. The resulting album, 2011's Helplessness Blues, expanded on Fleet Foxes' lush sound and again was widely praised by critics, going gold in the U.K. and earning them a Grammy nomination back in the U.S. Following several major tours and the departure of Tillman on drums, the band entered a hiatus made effective by Pecknold's 2014 relocation to New York City where he enrolled to pursue a degree at Columbia University. Things remained quiet until mid-2016 when it was revealed that the band had returned to the recording studio. In early 2017, it was announced Fleet Foxes had signed with Nonesuch to release their third album, Crack-Up, named after an essay by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Ambitious in scope and bearing a more progressive sound than their earlier work, Crack-Up was released in June 2017.

Biography by Timothy Monger, Allmusic.com

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Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Fleet Foxes cover a lot of territory – both musical and geographical – on Sun Giant, their debut EP for Sub Pop. The band's close, pristine harmonies and spare arrangements are at once timeless and a breath of fresh air, sharing roots with '60s folk-rock, 2000s indie pop, and ageless traditional songs. Fleet Foxes feel like they're singing to, and for, themselves on the EP, particularly on the title track, which lingers on their harmonies before drifting off on an acoustic guitar melody. Even on "Drops in the River," which builds from similarly simple beginnings to big drums and plugged-in guitars, the gentle beauty of the Foxes' melodies remains the same. From "English House"'s sparkling autoharps to the dreamy, soft rock-tinged "Mykonos," Sun Giant plays like it was culled from a backpacker's travel journal. With this intimate, organic, and tantalizing first glimpse at their music, Fleet Foxes sound like they've been making music a lot longer than their ages would suggest. Call it old soul music.

Review by Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Borrowing from ageless folk and classic rock (and nicking some of the best bits from prog and soft rock along the way), on their self-titled debut album Fleet Foxes don't just master the art of taking familiar influences and making them sound fresh again, they give a striking sense of who they are and what their world is like. Their song titles reference the Blue Ridge Mountains – never mind that they're actually from Seattle – but it's the ease and skill with which they mix and match British and American folk and rock from the far and not too distant past that makes the band's music so refreshing. While this mix could be contrived or indulgent, Fleet Foxes use restraint, structuring their flourishes into three- and four-minute pop songs full of chiming melodies and harmonies that sound like they've been summoned from centuries of traditional songs and are full of vivid, universal imagery: mountains, birds, family, death. Despite drawing from so many sources, there's a striking purity to Fleet Foxes' sound. Robin Pecknold's voice is warm and sweet, with just enough grit to make phrases like "premonition of my death" sound genuine, and the band's harmonies sound natural, and stunning, whether they're on their own or supported by acoustic guitars or the full, plugged-in band. "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" and "Meadowlarks" show just how much the Foxes do with the simplest elements of their music, but Fleet Foxes' best songs marry that purity with twists that open their sound much wider. As good as the Sun Giant EP was, Fleet Foxes saved many of their best songs for this album. "White Winter Hymnal" is remarkably beautiful, building from a vocal round into glorious jangle pop with big, booming drums that lend a sense of adventure as the spine-tingling melody lightens some of the lyrics' darkness ("Michael you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in summertime"). The suite-like "Ragged Wood" moves from a galloping beat to sparkling acoustic picking, then takes a trippy detour before returning to a more thoughtful version of its main theme. "Quiet Houses" and "He Doesn't Know Why"'s driving pianos show off the band's flair for drama. Dazzling songs like these are surrounded by a few songs that find the band leaning a little more heavily on its influences. "Your Protector" nods to Zeppelin's misty, mournful side, and "Blue Ridge Mountains" is the kind of earthy yet sophisticated song CSNY would have been proud to call their own. But, even when the songs aren't as brilliant as Fleet Foxes' highlights, the band still sounds alluring, as on the lush interlude "Heard Them Stirring." Throughout the album, the band sounds wise beyond its years, so it's not really that surprising that Fleet Foxes is such a satisfying, self-assured debut.

Review by Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Fleet Foxes - Albums Collection 2008-2011 (3CD)

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Props to Helplessness Blues for making the fretless zither cool again. On their second album, Fleet Foxes continue to take their music in unusual directions, creating a baroque folk-pop sound that hints at a number of influences – Simon & Garfunkel, Fairport Convention, the Beach Boys – but is too unique, too esoteric, too damn weird to warrant any direct links between the Seattle boys and their predecessors. It’s still a downright gorgeous record, though, filled to the brim with glee club harmonies and the sort of stringed instruments that are virtually unknown to anyone who didn’t go to music school (and even if you did, when’s the last time you rocked out on the Marxophone?). Relying on obscure instrumentation can be a dangerous game, and Fleet Foxes occasionally run the risk of sounding too clever for their own good, as if the need to “out-folk” groups like Mumford & Sons and Midlake is more important than writing memorable, articulate folk tunes. But Helplessness Blues has the necessary songs to back it up, from the slow crescendos of the album-opening “Montezuma” to the sweeping orchestral arrangement of the encore number, “Grown Ocean.”

Robin Pecknold remains the ringleader of this Celtic circus. His is the only voice to cut through the thick, lush harmonies that Fleet Foxes splash across every refrain like paint, and his lyrics – rife with allusions to the Bible, Dante the Magician, and the poetry of W.B. Yeats – reach beyond the territory he occupied on the band’s first record, which painted simple geographical portraits with songs like “Sun It Rises,” “Ragged Wood,” “Quiet Houses,” and “Blue Ridge Mountains.” On Helplessness Blues, he’s just as interested in the landscape of the human heart. Still, it’s the music that stands out, and the band’s acoustic folk/chamber pop combo makes every song sound like a grand tribute to back-to-the-land living.

Review by Andrew Leahey, Allmusic.com