Entertainment For Lively Minds
New Fleet Foxes album streaming here...
Posted by ganglesprocket on 4 May 2011 - 10:25am.
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/28/135550848/first-listen-fleet-foxes-helples...
I shall reserve any comment till I have actually had a listen.
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Very good of you, Dr Sprocket.
I, however, am not going to waste fifty minutes of my time listening to yet another load of turgid, self-indulgent pseudo-whimsical lumpen-melodied beardy guff.
Of course, I'll not pass pre-emptive judgement on it, though. That would be wrong.
I could only get the first twelve minutes to play.
It kept stopping.
But to these ears it sounded like their other stuff.
So brilliant then
*blows raspberry*
It's on Spotify
http://open.spotify.com/album/20RJRsAPD9Yx3Nols5cAGR
I bought it as my Monday morning download
Er..yesterday. Rather pleasant with an enjoyable elegaic whimsy, if a touch similar to their debut album. But that ain't really a bad thing. Is it?
Also got Charles Azanavour: "Best of". Bloomin Marvellous!
Amazon
Have it for download for £3.99 this week
This album
is one of the wettest I've ever heard. And I've listened to Tigermilk. Best described by my wife as "like Band Of Horses without all the stuff that makes Band Of Horses good".
I should
also point out that I have a beard and several checked shirts, and I still hate it
4 out of 5 in today´s Smålandsposten
And the rare honour of a 5 out of 5 in today's Dagens Nyheter
... so it's a resounding thumbs-up from the Swedish jury for the new Fleet Foxes album!
Ja jäklar!
The last time Glasvegas and Fleet Foxes released albums at roughly the same time, Swedish papers opted for Glasvegas. They became the big hype of 2008. Not so now.
That's because now, one quarter of Glasvegas...
... is Swedish
Just a bit, well, dull...
Didn't expect much to be honest after hearing a few tracks on Lauren Laverne's show last week.
I mean, it's not bad, it's just sort of, there and goes nowhere. Just on the lower side of middling.
Music from Big Pink is a great album, but not one to base an entire career on, surely?
We agree on Big Pink
But neither Foxes´ debut or Helplessness Blues sound very much like it, do they?
I think they do.
Not in terms of note for note plagiarism Oasis style but the look, feel, tone, substance and overall sound is in such thrall to Big Pink that it is to its detriment. To these (admittedly cloth) ears, there's not much substance or originality to the new record whereas at least the debut stood out from much around it.
Sure the subtle tone and feel of The Band is there
But I´ve always seen (which doesn´t mean you have to) The Band as a piano/organ (or whatever Garth happened to be playing) led band, with the odd guitar solo. Fleet Foxes uses a lot of guitars. They haven´t got loud solos, but a lot of strummed acoustic and mandolin.
I think they sound more like Crosby, Stills & Nash - but not so much as the & Young version. Helplessness Blues, with a more prominent rhythm, reminds me of early Van Morrison.
The reason the debut stood out more, I think, is that there´s been a flood of Fleet Foxes sounding bands since their first album was released. Also, some bands with more-or-less in common with them that were already around prior to Fleet Foxes have been lumped in with them (Midlake, Band Of Horses and others). "You have a beard! And a flannel shirt! Sign this! Go home and write songs. Do you have a guitar?"
But I do like some of them, so I don´t mind. We know how what´s left of the music industry (still) works.
this year goes like this
Bill Callahan (Apocalypse), Cass McCombs (Witt's End), Decemberists (The king is dead), Fleet Foxes (Helplessness blues). So you think this is too much for americana, take also Small Sur (Tones).
For What It's Worth
I think it's a classic
We are a broad..
..and partially bearded church. That's why I like it here.
Ooh ta!
Am listening now, and so far, so good! Quite a relief after the mixed opinions I've seen this week. I was in two minds whether to spend my money on it, but I think I'll go for it now. Brillo!
Don't think...
...much of the jazz sax bit though. Sounds like a baby elephant panicking.
"Sounds like a baby elephant panicking"
You say that like it's a bad thing...
I just don't get them
The new one, like the last one is very nice and all that but they leave me a bit cold.
It's wonderful
I can't believe the negativity here - it's a wonderful album. You lot have no taste at all.
I Can't Stop Playing It
On the 4th play today. I think it must have some hypnotic quality...