Fleet Foxes

I’m so upset with myself for never jumping on the Fleet Foxes hype train when I had the chance, because this album as absolutely incredible. Every vocal harmony impeccable, every note perfectly placed. This album feels like looking at a masterfully crafted wood carving. It feels like it takes the best bits of each of the year’s seasons and rolls them into one. Not only is this a 5, but I think it firmly has a place among my favorite records now.

This is the kind of stuff that I almost hate, but don't. The music itself is okay-ish. It's kinda dull and there's a million bands out there like them. It seems pretty soulless. It's folksy music for people that are not salt of the Earth people at all. It's for people that grew up in nice, pre-packaged communities and then want to pretend they have a damn thing in common with the average Joe. Sorry. I might've been projecting from personal experience there. Tl;dr: it's folk music for people from the suburbs that want to cosplay as working class. The band itself is lukewarm. It's not awful but it's not good either and it just feels so inauthentic and plastic.

On one hand, every song on this record is extremely well produced, with a clear and sharp sound and epic vocals. Standout songs for me are Sun It Rises, White Winter, Ragged Wood and Quiet Houses. However, there is very little for me to gain in listening to any more. I am dissapointed by the variety, a lack of tight instrumentals, and an unengaging theme. Because it leans a bit too much on vocals for my taste and I find myself getting tired of the choir-boy indie esthetic after a couple of songs, I feel it deserves a 6/10.

This is like open heart surgery from the point of view of the heart. Painful, uncomfortable, but with just the right amount of sexual tension. It's a noose around an unborn baby's neck. A sex tape set in a cancer ward. Crying whilst fingering your twin sister.

Um hi yes I’m obsessed with this album cover it’s gorgeous what is it. Apparently it’s by Peter Bruegel the Elder which makes since because I love his work. I hope I like this so I can buy it on vinyl just for the cover. 1. This is pretty 2. I have no idea what this is about but it’s pretty - I’ve decided it’s about little snow foxes wearing cute red scarves. 3. Pretty, this is soothing. 4. Oooh a minor key? 5. I really thought they were saying donkey man. Glad they aren’t. 6. “Memory is a fickle siren’s song” great line. 7. Pretty 8. I love this sort of sound - I have no idea what any of this album is about but it’s super pretty sounding 9. This sounds melancholic- very pretty though 10. This is a good album to listen to while you’re laying in bed at night. Calming, soothing, pretty, kinda zen. 11. It’s just a pretty album I guess I’m finally going to go listen to Shore now

Save it for a coming of age indie movie. It's alright, not offensive, but you're just never going to blow your load whilst it's on, are you? Or am I...? I did.

One of my favorite albums by probably my favorite band. I started listening to this album on the way to Santa Cruz maybe around when it came out. I was in middle school, and my best friend’s older sister put it on as she took us on the 3 hour drive to the boardwalk. It was the only CD we listened to the entire trip, and I’m not complaining. I have such nostalgia surrounding this! We laughed and swore we would learn to play Blue Ridge Mountains. I was told I could do the timpani or whatever instrument that is before, “in the quavering forestttt” chorus... I love this album with all my heart. I haven’t gone a year, month, and probably even week without listening to at least one of the songs off this album.

The sweetie-poo folk revival was never to my taste. Too earnest and hookless, but worse than that it's preening and genteel. Pop music is the language of semiotics, and what this communicates is a disdain for the city, the market, vulgarity. All healthy in doses, but in this quantity I sense puritanism. That said, they're very good players, occasionally turn their talents to picking good tunes, and aren't preachy.

Phenomenal debut, with masterfully crafted folk / chamber pop songs. Sounds like a solid mix between CSNY & The Beach Boys ‘Pet Sounds.’ STANDOUTS: -White Winter Hymnal -Ragged Wood -Tiger Mountain Peasant Song -Quiet Houses -He Doesn’t Know Why -Your Protector -Blue Ridge Mountains

*exactly my style of music *can't believe i hadn't listen to them before

An album for simpler days, quite beautiful.

As if the Mumfords were trying to pick up girls by demonstrating their deep sensitivity. Maudlin and over-produced but not in a good way. And yet, so precisely of its era that it's hard not to like it just a little bit

Imagine if the classic prog rock group, Yes, and the classic folk rock trio, Peter, Paul, & Mary, gave birth to a band of children, only to discover that they were a little tone deaf. Introducing, Fleet Foxes. Variously described as Indie folk and Baroque or Chamber pop (this is a new one for me, folks)- ‘a musical genre that combines rock music with the intricate use of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, and other components drawn from the orchestral and lounge pop of the 1960s, with an emphasis on melody and texture.’ Sounds good, if only 'Fleet Foxes' had been able to deliver. If this is an example of chamber pop, I would suggest a chambermaid to clean up the mess. A bullet into the chamber of a gun would be overkill. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Lyrically, the cover painting says it all, as a glance at the song titles will confirm: ‘Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,’ and ‘Meadowlarks,’ and such. You get it. And our lead minstrel, of course, goes by the name of Robin. No foolin’. One can only hope he’s better with a bow and arrow than he is with a mic. Robin was better in the lower registers, but as he climbed in pitch, he got pitchier. In fact the whole group’s harmonies, shrill and frequent, were also all over the medieval map. And the very heavy echo on the voices only sustained the bum notes. ‘Heard Them Stirring,’ for example, was three painful minutes of only oohs and aahs, no lyrics whatsoever as a balm for the hurting harmonies. Furthermore, there was very little instrumentally of which to speak, which would have at least provided a merciful relief to the vocals. The final track, ‘Oliver James’- the bleak tale of a poor chap who died down by the river and was brought back home to be laid on the kitchen table in preparation for burial- ended with an acapella vocal by Robin: ‘Oliver James, washed in the rain, no longer.’ And, bless his heart, he was giving it all he had, the passion was there; but, alas. Fleet Foxes, I was washed in your harmonies for thirty-nine minutes and 15 long seconds… but, no longer. Whew.

4.3 + Haunting, majestic, uplifting - like watching the sun rise over a mountain, gradually spreading light over the rocky crags and dissipating the frigid mist.

Did these come before or after Mumford & Sons? It's very Mumford & Sons. Fairly dull folk tinged indie. Thank God this lot and their ilk didn't take over the world as it briefly looked like they would in the early 2010s. Strong album cover though.

Think of the sheer STAGGERING quality of this band. This is probably only the second or third best Fleet Foxes record, and yet it's a nearly flawless 5 Star album. Most bands would be beyond lucky and happy to have a "White Winter Hymnal" or "Blue Ridge Mountains" as their opus. This band has BOTH of those, and they might not even be the best song from this era of the group! Incredible, incredible stuff.

Indie folk-rock that explores the intersection of pastoral and somnolent. Like a lot of things, how much I like it depends on my mood. I loved it today but could totally see myself smashing the OFF button with glee if I were a little more stressed or cynical. My son said it sounded like Lord of The Rings Holiday music. More specifically, like what you might hear at a Dwarven Castle Keep.

Bought it when it first came out based on reviews, never listened much. Now I know why. Damn this record is boring. Not a hook in sight. Beach Boys influenced? Nothing they ever produced is this boring, and I’ve listened to M.I.U. I might be overstating the case, but regardless this album is what purgatory must feel like - 39 minutes that feels like forever, trapped under a dome (echoes!) in the world’s worst renaissance fair.

What if you took Simon & Garfunkel and CSN&Y and (somehow) made it better? This album manages to take a sound that was already pretty much perfect and somehow makes it better. The singing and harmonising are extraordinary and He Doesn’t Know Why never fails to bring me out in goosebumps. I remember stumbling across Fleet Foxes on Jools Holland’s show once and instantly falling in love in a way that has happened with very few bands.

10. I don't really think it's objectively a 10, but that's what I'm rating it anyway

I love love love this album. I used to listen to it so much when I lived in Ottawa on Blackburn and then on Argyle. I would bike with my headphones in and sing this album sooooo loud! Thanks for the good listen.

Have listened to this album a million times. Have it on vinyl. Love it with all my heart adn will relisten soon...

Still holds up. Blue Ridge Mountains still stuck in my head.

At first I thought this was kinda like listening to the mammas and the Pappas. Later on I thought it was kinda like listening to the same song on repeat.

Listening to this, I felt like I was at a local music festival and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the local music. After listening, I immediately listened to Mountain Man's "Boat" to hear something similar but much better. Not sure why this album's on this list.

What was going on in the late 2000s? Why were pastiche sea shanties, skiffle and Gregorian chants on every hipster's iPod? I'm quite glad I missed much of it, the case in favor made here is pretty thin. A disappointment after the earlier "Mykonos" (a relative banger) pointed towards a more tuneful and less precious evolution

I really love this album - it’s one I had forgotten about until this challenge, I was so happy hearing it again after so long! Fleet Foxes was on high rotation for me in the late naughties along with other indie folk revival musicians like Angus and Julia Stone, Joanna Newsom and Beirut. A whimsical time in my life - starting my dream job post uni, before becoming a mother and the change of pace that brings (Of course at the time I didn't realise how magical this season was!) Back to the music - I really enjoy the harmonies, powerful vocals and mostly acoustic instrumentals. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song is particularly burned into my memory as one I'd listen to on repeat riding my bike to work - its probably still on my ipod shuffle somewhere. Sad that my copy of this album got lost somewhere in the many house moves of my 20s, but happy to rediscover it in the age of streaming! Its aged pretty well, but I think it could be pretty repetitive to new listeners. I’m into it.

Wow, this album is special to me, it’s one of the first albums I listened to that wasn’t something one of my parents owned, so it’s sort of formative in that way. White Winter Hymnal is a song I sing all the time. This will probably be an incredibly subjective rating. I will say Helplessness Blues is better but still.

When I refreshed the page this morning and saw this album pop up on my screen I was so immensely happy. This is one of my favorite albums of all time and Fleet Foxes one of my top bands. To put it in perspective, 5 of the 11 songs are in my daily playlist (10 total by the band), and 4 made it to the playlist I made for my mom to get a better grasp on the music I love. All that to say it is an instant 5 for me and I am more than happy to give it another listen through with some long listening notes (song by song time! WOOT WOOT!). "Sun It Rises" - I love the traditional folk vocal intro to set the pace of the album in a way. The guitar intro is fun and uplifting and the ethereal vocals on the rest of the song fit my listening style of treating the voice as an instrument and not noticing lyrics right away quite well. The outro riff gives me a almost strokes vibe. "White Winter Hymnal" - It sounds like they are making an indie folk cover of a traditional folk song, but no its an original. I do love the Pentatonix version of this one too. "Ragged Wood" - This is one of the best songs on the album, certainly a departure from the first two song in terms of rhythm and BPM, it plays to its favor though pulling you back in after you drift off to dreamland during "White Winter Hymnal". The bass on this song is fantastic when it is poking through in the energetic parts it is captivating and then a simple but not overbearing bass solo as it then builds instrument on instrument back to that energy. I have listened to this song 62 times according to Spotistats and have never really had the reaction I just had to the bass on that song and I processed some of the vocals in a way I hadn't before. It sounds cheesy, but that moved me. Maybe it was listening through my studio headphones instead of speakers for once but it was amazing. "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" - This goes back to that traditional folk sound of the doubled guitars making a harp like sound is just purely gorgeous. When they sync up for a measure or two at a time it brings the contrast of the two together. It reminds me of the composition of Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair/Canticle". The near shouted vocals on the what I guess you could call choruses have such a visceral feeling to them. "Quiet House" - This is probably my least favorite track on the album. It has amazing instrumentation to it especially that bass it really pulls the other parts together. The "Don't give in" section is what really throws me off, I just hear "Donkey Man" over and over again. The guitar on the outro is also very fantastic. I still really like the track just not my favorite. "He Doesn't Know Why" - I can't quite place my finger on it but the vocals on the intro reminds me so much of another song. It has bothered me since the first time I heard this song and still does. Great song with more great instrumentation. I love the in sync rests they do just before the bridge. "Heard Them Stirring" - I don't have too much to say about this one. It is a good filler track. I don't have strong feelings either way it is just a meditative respite in the middle of the album. "Your Protector" - Another of my favorites. The vocal and flute intro is very gently powerful. The build of the chugging cymbal leading into the bass dig in and then an explosion of instrumentation. There is so much to dissect in this song and I love it more and more each time. "Meadowlarks" - Another one of my lower listen count songs. I love the guitar part under the vocals. They work as two different songs in one that just fit with each other. The chorus of vocals that come in for the middle of the song are very relaxing. The song as a whole is very relaxing. A little too low energy for it to be on my everyday playlist, but I love it. "Blue Ridge Mountains" - The song named for my favorite place on this planet. Is it my favorite for that reason or because it is just an amazing and beautiful song. A little combination. I do prefer the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina but close enough. Another traditional folk sound on the intro. I close my eyes and I am taken there while listening. I can't wait to go back. It is the most beautiful and peaceful places I have ever been. Its fitting for one of the best Indie Folk albums to have a song about part of Appalachia one of the birthplaces of American music and particularly folk. Everybody should drive at least part of the Blue Ridge Parkway in their life. The rolling blue mountains for as far as the eye can see just have the most beautiful calming aspect. "Oliver James" - Another "lowlight" of the album for me. Doesn't mean it isn't a good song I just wish it was in a different spot and it ended with the fade out of "Blue Ridge Mountains". I was going to try to provide a little bit of an objective review at the end but that will not be possible. This is a top 10 album for me all time. It is just a beautiful indie folk album that is in my opinion and absolute must listen before you die. If for some reason you are still reading my long winded review I highly recommend that you listen to A Very Lonely Solstice by Fleet Foxes. It is one of my favorite live recorded albums I have ever heard. It certainly benefits from being recorded with no audience during COVID so not a live album in the typical way. I love this album, I love this band, I was having a stressful week and this just melted so much of my stress away.

Saved Prior: None Not Saved: 11. Heard Them Stirring 10. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song Cutting Edge: 9. Meadowlarks Off Rip: 8. Oliver James 7. He Doesn't Know Why 6. Blue Ridge Mountains 5. Your Protector 4. White Winter Hymnal 3. Sun It Rises 2. Quiet Houses 1. Ragged Wood Overall Notes: Did not expect to like this at all. Folk is one of my least favorite genres, it all sounds so terribly plain to me. But this was impeccable. Lush sounds, wonderful harmonies, nice little lyrical bits. An easy 5, especially considering the genre this is coming from. This is medieval music for the 21st century, and I'm here for it.

10/10. Every song is so good. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song is unreal. Can't say enough good things about this album.

2008: White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountain, Ragged Woods, Your Protector, He Doesn't Know Why

Fantastic folk album, been a favorite for years

Fleet Foxes I haven’t listened to this in a while, so it’s nice revisiting, and this has to be one of the most ‘pleasant to listen to albums’, the folky acoustic, the canorous and expressive lead guitar, the vocals and vocal harmony, the reverby atmosphere, the sweet melodies it all makes for a warm, soothing, restorative listen. I occasionally wonder though whether there’s a great deal beyond that, is it an exercise in style and mood rather than a fully satisfying album? But then I think the sound, the atmosphere, the niceness of it all is more than enough, and it exudes such an agreeable sense of joyfulness and craftsmanship, that you only really need to take it at face value and simply enjoy. And beneath the sweetness of the sound I think it does have sufficient depth and substance to it, which stops it from becoming too earnest, or too twee or too Mumford and Sons. I’ve always loved Sun It Rises, the harmonies plus the circular little riff are fantastic, and White Winter Hymnal is of course superb. Tiger Mountain is also great, and I love the melody of He Doesn’t Know Why. But it’s some of the songs I forgot about that I really noticed listening now, Heard Them Stirring with its great organ undercurrent, Meadowlarks spare gentleness is really lovely and the finish of Blue Ridge Mountains with the piano and Oliver James is super. I’ve always loved the Bruegel cover too, it suits the music in it’s evocative, pastoral delightfulness, while having just enough oddness going on to be engaging. It’s a great album, but I think it just falls short of a 5, so it stays as a very high 4. 🦊🦊🦊🦊 Playlist submission: Sun It Rises

No. 275/1001 … Sun It Rises 3/5 White Winter Hymnal 4/5 Ragged Wood 4/5 Tiger Mountain Peasant Song 3/5 Quiet Houses 4/5 He Doesn't Know Why 3/5 Heard Them Stirring 3/5 Your Protector 4/5 Meadowlarks 4/5 Blue Ridge Mountains 4/5 Oliver James 3/5 Average: 3,55 Really cool laid-back folk rock album.

Good album. Different to what I normally listen to but enjoyed it.

Yeah, it's pretty nice. Nice melodies, nice harmonies, nice polite playing. Really well recorded, although I believe they needed to bring in NASA engineers to design the digital delays and reverb slathered over all the vocals.

I heard the hobbits hired this band to play at their annual harvest festival. The general consensus was that they weren't bad, just not ... good. They were not invited back. Hobbits went with a Fleetwood Mac cover band for the following year's festival.

Sonically, this album is amazing. What’s even crazier is it’s a debut album and sounds so polished. Honestly could have came out today and I wouldn’t think twice. I will say, it’s a little slow for my liking, and after 2 listens, I don’t see too much replay value.

Very pleasing to the ear, clearly made by great talent. Good use of many instruments, vocals and melodies are outstanding. Misses a bit of engagement or "WOW" factor though for my tastes.

The soundtrack to your McCarren Park Kickball League.

I can’t think of another album I’ve gotten so far that I could so perfectly summarize as “Not for me.” I hate this era of twee, faux-woodsy, fake Bohemian, quaint, sparse, nothingness folk music. I hated it when it was popular, I hated everything it influenced in the 2010s, I hate it today. I find it not only disengaging, but also annoying and snobby. To me, it feels contrived. And everything about Fleet Foxes and their debut falls under this argument. I have no desire to listen to it ever, and I became actively angry as I listened to it, because it kept giving me nothing. Yet, I’ve heard way worse albums here, and I can’t deny that this is, from a crafts perspective, well-made. I can see glimpses of moments where I could’ve maybe latched on to something here, they just never materialized into something fully fleshed out for me, instead committing to a sparse and thin aesthetic that I can’t get behind in folk music. And while that’s not enough for me to praise it, it’s also not fair for me to deny its value. In so many words, Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes is very much not for me.

I give it 2 out 5 doesn't really hype me up its okay its not bad I like the beat the instruments. I don't know what lyircs are saying at all and its confusing.

#360. Just more hipster folk drivel, that just sounds exactly like all the rest of the hipster folk on the list. The album cover is pretty cool. I really like that. 2/5: meh

Yeah. I remember this band. I didn't need to be reminded that they existed. I get it. It's not for me. Sounds a bit similar to itself.

“They placed their guitar amplifiers in Native American tipis for aesthetics”, wrote the Wikipedia contributor, maybe a PR person, ticking off the “lackadaisical cultural appropriation” box in my “I-SPY: Hipster Roots Music” spotters’ guide. A decade or so back, deep in mid-gentrification East London, you couldn’t toss a carefree Molotov without immolating some tender Tarquin in a flat cap torturing a banjo and an oversized mic borrowed from Grandpapa, and while this album sorely lacks banjo, it completely captures that vibe of stealing nostalgia from bones in coffins. Throwing Brueghel’s “Netherlandish Proverbs” onto the cover for its “really weird stuff” is super-functioning hipsterdom, and teasing the listener with an opening song that is actually quite exciting before diving into monotonous, intricate, tuneless harmonising is exactly what their fans deserved. May your tipi burn bright, long and noiselessly.

Its a no for me

Music to fall asleep to at a pub open mic night.

Folk and Americana for people that don't actually like the genres. This is what they play at the Gap when they want to sound "earthy." For a fan of the grittier sound of both of those genres, this is the album that launched a thousand lame versions.

A fantastic album, serene and timeless. 5 stars.

one of the best!

White Winter Hymnal

Fleet Foxes always deliver some masterpieces and their first album just show how brilliant their lush instrumentals alongside with the cosy atmosphere can delighttge listener. Although it is summer now, I felt transported to a winter cabin with a hot cocoa listening to this. Great lyrics and one of the best folk ever written.

There aren't very many indie-folk bands that have stood the test of time for me. I know Fleet Foxes was a little before the big indie-folk craze and they might be more indie than folk but this band really has stood the test of time for me. When I was 20 I was a member of the mormon church and I was doing a mission for them. On those missions, you're not allowed to listen to any music that's not church music which was incredibly difficult for me since I have always loved music so much. I caved and burnt Helplessness Blues to a CD and that album helped me get through that mission. So Fleet Foxes is a special band to me emotionally. I also just want to say that it's crazy that this is a debut album.

As a millenial, this is a really important album. One of the key albums of the folk indie world of the mid to late 2000s. This might be the sneaky best indie folk album of the time too. There's very little ego with this album, which is probably why its the sneaky best. There's no Mumford and his sons, or the 2 dudes from the Lumineers in suspenders or Conor Oberst yodel crying. (I love all of those artists, BTW). But this is very music and art first. Its always been that way, and its why its aged so well. They were just creating really cool unique music and not really investing in "who are the Fleet Foxes." There's always been mysticism and mystery with the storytelling in this record. From the album cover art work all the way to Oliver James. You don't really know who or what is going on, but the music pulls you in. Its wraps around you and you kind of just live in it. I love how Sun Rises starts the record as this kind of an appalachian folk song and then turns into this epic journey, which sets the presendent for the rest of the album. It goes right into White Winter Hymnal -another one of those "what the hell is this song about?" but then you kind of just want to listen to it on repeat because its so damn cool. And the vocals melodies are so perfect. This is easily one of the best songs of the 200s. Ragged Wood through Your Protector feels like one long epic song ending with Meadowlarks. Its all just different movements and layers and themes, but still just pushing this mystic story forward. Its takes off again with Blue Ridge Mountains before ending perfectly with Oliver James. This is almost a perfect record. I love this take on folk and acoustic music. I love the world building, I love that you can jump into any song at any point of the album and just be in it until the end. We're lucky to have been alive at the time that this record came out.

This record is so pretty. As someone raised in church, the layers of harmonies are warm quilts to wrap up in. What a nice world to step into for 39 minutes. After internet research on who the problematic brother character might be, I took a nap. I hope the brother is doing okay somewhere.

Shit was actually great fr

Ok, this one got me by surprise. It is surprisingly good. I am not an major fan of folk, but this one may change my mind. Vocal harmonies are on point, excelent instrumentation, so many unique sounds. Excelent album, short songs but they seem to go by even faster with their quality. The songs are similar, but they defenitely don't sound the same, you know what I mean? They have the same feel, but each has it own unique flavour. Favourite songs: White Winter Hymnal (excellent, wow! gave me goosebumps!) Your Protector Blue Ridge Mountains

All of It

I can’t lie I absolutely loved this one. White Winter Hymnal a throwback cause I sang that in 7th grade choir and it was absolutely gas but everything else on this album was gas too

First time that I've listened to this artist. I have thoroughly enjoyed this record. The vocal harmonies are the greatest highlight and the melodies and compositions feel dreamy and otherworldly. One of my favorite discoveries in quite a while.

Wedding song!

Dang, I've heard of the band, definitely recognize White Winter Hymnal, but I'd never really listened. This was great. Every time Tiger Mountain Peasant Song came on, I'd stop and listen. Always a good sign.

Wow!

Great voices. Too folk for me.

chill, good, knew more than I thought

10/10 I knew I already loved this album, but maybe underestimated how much.

I mean I traveled to Spain to see this band because of this album

Great album Other listens today Tunde Adebimpe, ‘Thee Black Boltz’ 4* Franz Ferdinand, ‘The Human Fear’ 5*

Oooh one I know going in. Probably gonna be a 5⭐️

Responsible for so many hat-wearing "Hey!" bands, but this album is why the folk revival had at least something behind it at the beginning

A lomos de White Winter Hymnal, Blue Ridge Mountains o Sun It Rises los Fleet Foxes conquistaron el mundo. Sonidos clasicos (referencias obvias a CS&N, Beach Boys más barrocos o Sion and Garfunkel) pero también un poso de Animal Collective. Una joya atemporal que se expandió aún más con el siguiente e imprescindible Helplessness Blues y la incorporación de Father John Misty. Su último álbum Shore, es otro clásico.

Wooooao love the vibe, the cord's intruments are like country but in rock and roll. Loved the lirycs and the cover it's beautiful

I really loved this album. I liked the indie mixed with an almost country-filk genra. It was really weird but in a good way. Rating - 9

Loved the second album more, but still amazing

Ive heard various Fleet Foxes songs throughout the years, but I must’ve completely missed this album. This is growing on me and is probably a full on 5 already. I hear everything from Beatles and Simeon and Garfunkel to early Mumford & Sons. In other words, it feels psychedelic and pop/folk/bluegrass. Specifically, in Quiet Houses, I hear what I think a lot of alternative rock bands would sound like in the early twenty teens - im thinking alt J, Saint Motel. In Sun It Rises, the chatter sounds like something straight out of the White Album lol My only ding against it (and this may be an unpopular opinion) is that it doesnt have a stand out hit. All the songs are equally interesting.

Have always loved this album - have listened to more of their later stuff and Fr John Misty solo stuff. It’s interesting to see the albums from this genre and era that are selected versus omitted, but think this album deserves to be on here. These guys stand out amongst the indie folk crew. No duds in the bunch - maybe a little low tempo at times but that’s my only complaint.

One of my favourites!

I can’t check my bias on this one. I wore out the CD in college and have it on vinyl. I absolutely love this album.

a lovely album

I miss the old fleet foxes

one of the best albums of all time

Nice, quiet indie-folk albums. Beautiful songs.

How many bands launch with such a fully realized sound? Baroque, pastoral folk songs that generally avoid the Americana tropes that became so common at this time.

Perfect acapella harmonies. Beautiful, pastoral folk melodies seemingly a conduit for nature itself. Sympathetic electric-guitar lines. Psychedelic reverbing swirls and eastern melodies. And this just the first track 'Sun it Rises'. It's one of those albums that everyone seemed to be listening to at the time; I had it on CD - and yet rarely have I revisited this in its entirety in the past decade (even in spite of being a fan of their recent atmospheric album Shore). Perfect in its construction, in its melody, in its execution and in its atmosphere. Five stars was invented for this sort of album - it's as close to perfection as you're likely to get.

Hozier

I forgot I love this album. There is something about it that just speaks to me. All around a fantastic listen that I love as much today as the first day I heard it.

An absolutely transcendent record, the beauty of this album is that it takes folk as its basis, but transforms and modernizes the sound of it without being glossy or overly polished. A gifted melodicist, lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold sings in a direct and clear voice without being flashly. Lyrically, the stories he tells through the songs on this album are vivid and relatable.

Good one!

Gorgeous music, I would judge anyone that said they didn't like this.

Always loved this. Forgot how good it was

Without Pet Sounds there would be no Fleet Foxes. I love this album.

Have had this album on repeat since its release. My go to “people who may or may not wear shoes that live in the mountains while making angelic music” band. 10/10

New to me and fabulous. Gentle, transporting, sad.

start slow, but always ended up being very powerful

Fun stuff Added White Winter hymnal + blue ridge mountains to liked Overall fun vibe

So many layers, so lush, the Pet Sounds of my generation!

The type of mellow expressive music that speaks to me. Love it

Love this band

A nice folksy time. Really nice sound and just overall relaxing. Very much a PNW soundtrack.