In That Dream I'm as Old as the Mountains

Hearing the Fleet Foxes for the first time was one of those musical milestones: Mykonos came on the radio sounding like Bruce Springsteen fronting a seventies band from San Francisco that out of nowhere in the middle of the song switched gears turning into a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Springsteen song with sweeping harmonies. As luck would have it, a scan of my iPod would reveal that I had actually downloaded the song via a sampler some weeks before letting me listen the song on a loop for the next couple days and telling anyone who would listen about the song (see Feed Your iPod vol. XXXX: Mykonos).

Fleet Foxes continue their folk attack with their sophomore album Helplessness Blues. Though more melancholy than their self titled debut with less harmonies this time around, the new album continues the grandiose folk of the first but still enough beautiful harmonies that harkens back to the sixties with groups like The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, and the previous mentioned Crosby, Stills, Nash and sometimes Young. Helplessness Blues is Sunday morning music at its best.

Even though they excel at lush harmonies and soothing folk music, but the acoustic guitar and singular voice of Blue Spotted Tail is just as beautiful as anything on the album. And lead singer finally unleashes vocally at the beginning of The Shrine / An Argument that ends with a more frantic sax burst than we have heard from the group. But Helplessness Blues hits its highpoints when the band goes with its strength like on the strumming glow of the title track and the driving Battery Kinzie which lets some Irish Folk influence drip into it. Then there is the hymnal opening of The Plains / Bitter Dancer, before switching into a soundtrack of a drive in the countryside. We seem to be in a boon for great folksy music and Helplessness Blues is worthy addition to the list of some of the best this decade.

Song to Download – Battery Kinzie

Helplessness Blues gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.