[Folk] Fleet Foxes’ (somewhat) New Direction

Fork Knife Music proclaims that 2009 was the year of forgetting the wonderful five-piece Seattle-based band Fleet Foxes saying, “They were the darlings of ’08, and that summer was filled with complete, non-stop Fleet Foxes, listening to album so much that every musical nook and cranny became memorized and cherished.” With over a quarter of plays on their myspaces just on the two months after they went online, they had established themselves as THE indie folk band to talk about.

At the end of 2008, their first album Fleet Foxes was rated album of the year by Billboard’s Critic’s Choice and in Metacritic’s end of year best album round-up it appeared in 17 lists, topping six of them.

They toured for most of 2009 and yet without releasing new content it almost seemed that they had been forgotten this year.

Will 2010 be the same? I doubt it! Even though there is not clear date for the release of the next album, they have guaranteed a release in mid 2010. This time Fleet Foxes will be heading into a much softer direction. Lead vocalist Robin Pecknold told Pitchfork that while it is not going to be a darker album, they will definitely tone down the tempo a notch to to provide a much softer mellow sound.

I found it interesting that Hot Cakes decided to quote this specific part from the Pitchfork interview.

“I want the recording to be really fast. I want to do all the vocal takes in one go, so even if there are fuck-ups, I want them to be on there. I want there to be guitar mistakes. I want there to be not totally flawless vocals. I want to record it and have that kind of cohesive sound.”

With a lot of artists spending too much time inside the studio, the genuine guys of Fleet Foxes understand that music is a form of expression and they dont want anything to stand in the way between their music and their listeners.

Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

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Fleet Foxes – Blue Ridge Mountains

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