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I'm bored. I've been listening to the new self-titled album from Fleet Foxes and I am really, really bored by the whole thing. All this buzz about baroque quality music accompanied by comparisons to CSNY and early My Morning Jacket is nothing but bullshit. This band is just as boring as Band of Horses or Beach House or any of the millions of bands out there right now force feeding us this sound. I don't care how many of these albums get branded Best New Music or make Stereogum cream themselves they just aren't good albums. They are self-aggarandizing, overly drawn out bits of music, and though they are complicated and require a lot of talented musicianship they don't have that it factor that will sustain their need to be listened to. Really, those of you who do like this tell me how often do you actually listen to it? Is it an album you can listen to every day without skipping a track and as soon as it's done wanna play it again? Because that's how it's been made out to be and after about half a dozen listens I never wanna hear it again. And that's my two cents worth right there. Fleet Foxes - "Quiet Houses"
Fleet Foxes - "Your Protector"
The members of Jaguar Love already have a storied past despite this being their first proper release. With former members of The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves making up the three pieces of the band you can bank that a lot of people are gonna be going ape shit over this band. Throw in the reputation Matador has of bringing along bands and I think we have a guaranteed hit on our hands before even listening to a note from the band. But once you do finally get around to listening to this introductory three song EP I don't think you'll be surprised by what you hear at all. Totally androgynous singing (I wrongly said there were guy/girl vocals yesterday), big glam guitar riffs, and peppy upbeat teams are the style all over here, and though you can certainly trace the roots back to their older bands Jaguar Love doesn't really resemble The Blood Brothers or Pretty Girls Make Graves all that much. Of course this is just a teaser meant to get us all in a tizzy about this great new band, and it works as that! I am no eagerly awaiting their debut album Take Me to the Sea which is slated to hit stores August 19th (and the internet a few weeks prior to that I'm sure). For now though these three songs will get my summer off to the right start.Jaguar Love - "My Organs Sound Like..."
Friday June 6th:
Pela - "Lost to the Lonesome"
M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
Holy Fuck - "Milkshake"
Four Tet - "Ribbons"
The Field - "Over the Ice"
Saturday June 7th:
Cool Kids - "Oscar"
White Rabbits - "March of the Camels"
Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - "The Debtor"
The Muggabears - "Automatic Others"
Sunday June 8th:
These New Puritans - "Swords of Truth"
Gnarls Barkley - "Blind Mary"
Battles - "Leyendecker"
6 comments:
my favorite songs on Fleet Foxes I've listened to about 50 times each. So there...
And if you've ever seen them live, you would know that self-aggrandizing is everything they're not.
I haven't listed to enough Fleet Foxes to say anything about their replay value.
But I've listened to "Apple Orchard" by Beach House 71 times, and every song on "Devotion" 47 times (I have to play the whole album straight). And I'm not even nearly sick of them. I implore you, from the bottom of my heart, give Beach House and Band of Horses another shot!
ive listened to the new fleet foxes album at least twice a day since it came out. its awesome, ragged wood is one of the best songs of the year so far.
Thank you for your honesty. While I don't 100% agree with you about Fleet Foxes, I do agree with the general idea you're trying to get across. The albums by Panda Bear, Port O'Brien, Hold Steady, etc. I don't blame them, but I can't stand the way Pitchfork and blogs hype the shit out of them, when I can't actually see anyone listening to them more than a few times. I wonder what bands like The Beatles, or Nick Drake or Steely Dan or Incubus would have been like had they released their music today. When will all this hype end?
Basically, thanks for having your own opinion. It's refreshing.
I'm not going to argue with your opinion on the replay value of any of these artists, since that's just a matter of taste, but Beach House does not have the same "sound" as Band of Horses or Fleet Foxes. I don't even know where you get that.
To Doron: I can't quite tell what point you're making at the end of your comment, but it looks like you're saying that if the bands you name had existed in this era of hype they might have been ruined. That's odd for a couple of reasons.
First, do you honestly think that blogs are hyping Fleet Foxes, Panda Bear, et al, anywhere near as much as the Beatles were hyped in their early days? Read some history, man. Good lord. And, second, perhaps some hype might have done Nick Drake good by getting some money in his pocket. What about that?
As for Steely Dan and Incubus, I have nothing to say, since my opinion of them (again, taste) vastly differs from yours, apparently.
Although I appreciate the dissenting voice, I think you're giving far too much importance to the very hype that you're trying to decry. Robin Peckold and his crew are not ramming their debut down your throat (although PF may be).
I fail to see how the album itself is "self-aggarandizing" (sic) simply because the melodies, harmonies, and ideas are packed so densely. At under 40 minutes, it is by no means "drawn out." I, for one, pull this album out more regularly than any other 08 release.
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