A while back I said I'd do a series of 'summer albums', the first being New Order's Technique. The début Fleet Foxes album is the second, and probably the most recent album I'd put into the hypothetical 'summer albums' playlist.
Fleet Foxes is a captivating slice of lo-fi, folksy Americana. So lo-fi in fact that there are apparently all sorts of off-timings across the record, indicating an eschewing of ProTools perfection in favour of genuine warmth and realism. (In fairness, it would take a producer, engineer or professional musician to notice this; being none of these, I'll just take Q's word for it.)
The album is brief, and sometimes when I listen to it I tune out of the individual tracks completely, just absorbing the pastoral warmth of the delicate, ethereal atmospheres it generates. Clearly then, it's not an album that I'd consider listening to when driving; but it is, I find, the ideal soundtrack to chilled-out summer Sunday family breakfasts with the kids (regrettably the only day of the week we're altogether to have breakfast), the gentle sounds from the music adequately matching the slight hangover haze from the Saturday night before whilst having a simultaneously calming influence over two ordinarily wilful children.
If I were forced to pick favourite tracks here, it would probably be as follows: 'White Winter Hymnal', whose name doesn't sound at all summery (though its verses do conclude with the words 'summer time') but which includes some beautiful, delicate and uplifting vocal harmonies; 'He Doesn't Know Why', whose emotional rises and falls are just as riveting after repeated listens, progressing, seemingly chorus-less, to a final section of almost Phil Spector-esque grandeur; finally, 'Your Protector', which has similar characteristics to the two songs above, with a strident, elegiac tone, as well as an hint of Celtic mysticism.
I find it hard to separate this album from M Night Shyamalan's The Village, since I watched that movie at around the same time as we bought this. But more than anything it just perfectly suits the slightly erratic summers we are cursed with in this country.
As for the third, and final, 'summer album' in the playlist, expect it to be divisive; then again, this is supposed to be a relatively personal blog...
Fleet Foxes is a captivating slice of lo-fi, folksy Americana. So lo-fi in fact that there are apparently all sorts of off-timings across the record, indicating an eschewing of ProTools perfection in favour of genuine warmth and realism. (In fairness, it would take a producer, engineer or professional musician to notice this; being none of these, I'll just take Q's word for it.)
The album is brief, and sometimes when I listen to it I tune out of the individual tracks completely, just absorbing the pastoral warmth of the delicate, ethereal atmospheres it generates. Clearly then, it's not an album that I'd consider listening to when driving; but it is, I find, the ideal soundtrack to chilled-out summer Sunday family breakfasts with the kids (regrettably the only day of the week we're altogether to have breakfast), the gentle sounds from the music adequately matching the slight hangover haze from the Saturday night before whilst having a simultaneously calming influence over two ordinarily wilful children.
If I were forced to pick favourite tracks here, it would probably be as follows: 'White Winter Hymnal', whose name doesn't sound at all summery (though its verses do conclude with the words 'summer time') but which includes some beautiful, delicate and uplifting vocal harmonies; 'He Doesn't Know Why', whose emotional rises and falls are just as riveting after repeated listens, progressing, seemingly chorus-less, to a final section of almost Phil Spector-esque grandeur; finally, 'Your Protector', which has similar characteristics to the two songs above, with a strident, elegiac tone, as well as an hint of Celtic mysticism.
I find it hard to separate this album from M Night Shyamalan's The Village, since I watched that movie at around the same time as we bought this. But more than anything it just perfectly suits the slightly erratic summers we are cursed with in this country.
As for the third, and final, 'summer album' in the playlist, expect it to be divisive; then again, this is supposed to be a relatively personal blog...
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