Fleet Foxes

Insanely pretentious late 00's folk-rock, its an album grown in a lab to appeal to me specifically. Of course I love it! 5/5

Fleet Foxes You can almost smell the patchouli oiled neckbeards from here. Didn't really get this indie-chamber-folk thing at the time and I don't now, I'm afraid. I get that it is lovingly crafted and produced with real care. But you can take pretty bits and pieces from the Beach Boys, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Van Duke Parks and so on and mix it all together, but if the songs just don't have any hook, any pull, then it's like all icing and no cake. One long mush where it was impossible to pick out one track from another. Best Track - Meadowlarks Worst Track - Oliver James 3.5/10

A little bit satanic indie… Not really my style.

I will be revising this later when I give it another listen but "Your Protector" is a stand out. Add "Oliver James" to the stand outs.

quite nice and whimsical but gives me background music vibes in a way - blue ridge mountains is a banger tho

Some good, some grating - folk that’s very much of a time … a couple really good songs but a few that I really disliked. Rounding up 3

I ought to like Fleet Foxes more. They're good musicians in a genre I broadly enjoy. But there's something that doesn't quite work for me: a sense of bombast that feels misplaced, a tendency to flatten melody in favour of choral swagger. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song is the kind of style I'm looking for and most of the record isn't that.

I remember being a bit baffled at why this was so popular when it was first released, and listening again now after many years I'm still baffled. This will be one of those albums that's removed from the list, is it hasn't already. While it's a bit dull, at least it's not offensive to my ears.

כזה אלבום יפה

I forgot how much I love this album. 3.7

Feels like fallen leaves or deepest winter. I did not really listen to this when it came out, but now associated with snowy playlist and will always have special memories for me. Even if it is melancholy. Maybe especially so.

A couple good songs, the rest were inoffensive

Can't believe I've never listened to this band before. Right up my alley.

Strange!

One of those cases where the album sounds like the album cover. What do I know about the indie folk boom in the 2000s? I guess I know about Bon Iver, but beyond that, I never really delved deeper into it. I'm not too familiar with indie and chamber folk, and folk as a whole. My only exception being Tracy Chapman's debut, but it gave more Singer-Songwriter feels to me. When I came across Fleet Foxes, I thought to myself: eh, why not. Honest thoughts? Genuinely one of the more comfortable albums I've listened to so far. It has lush production, warm communal vocals, mellow yet catchy melodies, and soulful lyrics. There's an air of melancholy to be felt, but the album just emanates that feeling of hopeful bliss which overpowers it. I'm really glad I found this album. This album sounds very rustic, or maybe that's just what comes with folk. Either way, the arrangement in this album give a very pastoral feel, as if I'm walking by fields to my little cottage by the riverside. The pervasive strumming of the acoustic guitars and the plucking from the electric guitar give off that countryside feel. Blue Ridge Mountains, He Doesn't Know Why, and especially Ragged Woods are probably the best-produced songs here for me. The production in these songs is layered and lush, and I especially like how Ragged Woods is basically just two songs. Being one of the longer cuts here, it gives off a feeling of seamless sonic development. Despite that, I think I favor the simpler songs here. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and Oliver James are stripped down to just acoustic guitars and single vocals, yet they evoke the most emotion here for me. I just love the feeling of intimacy they give off. Beautifully produced and beautifully arranged. I like the melodic structure of each song on this album. White Winter Hymnal is the obvious standout here, having a simple yet memorable tune. I feel like I've heard that song before, and maybe that's why I have some bias for it. Nevertheless, I think it is a great song with a lush texture and a catchy melody. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song, as I stated prior, is my favorite song; it just gives a calming mood with its melody. It's slower, and the guitar work feels like it wants you to hear its every pluck. He Doesn't Know Why is really hard-hitting with how he says “There's nothing I can do.” You can really feel him when he says that shit, like damn. Honestly, the weakest parts of this album are Heard Them Stirring and Meadowlarks. I personally like them still, but they honestly failed to standout. In an album filled with amazing sounds and ideas, both of these songs fell short by not really introducing any ideas that push this album forward. Heard Them Stirring is all vocal harmonizing with no actual lyrics, and while I think the idea alone is interesting, it didn't really, y'know, hit me that much. I don't think the lack of lyrics is the reason it feels ineffective for me; Quiet Houses is a great song despite having basically only 2 lines repeated over and over, but it still delivered. It's emotive, and it has a certain sense of glee emanating from it. Meadowlarks is not necessarily a bad song, and I think it's a bit better than the former, but ultimately, it is a bit plain. Stripped-down instrumentals can be good; Meadowlarks doesn't execute it as well as Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and Oliver James did. In isolation, these are still great songs to listen to, and I don't think they are necessarily a drag to listen to. Overall, an amazing piece of indie folk music. So much passion and life can be found here, and the arrangements here are just chef’s kiss. Looking forward to listening to more folk albums soon. Amazing album. Fav track: Tiger Mountain Peasant Song Least fav: Heard Them Stirring

Folk rock that feels very of-its-era. Cool vibes, only knock is that songs kinda run together.

That was very pretty and relaxing for a bike ride through rush hour traffic

Fairly folky and a bit quiet but it was pleasant

The start of beardy jangle earthen pop

not as good as Joni Mitchell’s Blue

A band I should listen to more. This album cover is so good. Best Song: Oliver James Rating: 7.5/10 Stars: 4

4,5

Some of it sounds fine, but this kind of rootless "folk" music feels so soulless to me.

I had listened to this before. And while I love White Winter Hymnal, it does feel sort of samey. But if ever there was an album to Nick Nicks, it would Nick Nick this so Nick.

love love love it

It's not as good as Helplessness Blues or Crack-Up, but it's pretty damn good, not much else to say. Favorite Song: White Winter Hymnal Score: 83/100

For a long time, every time I heard "White Winter Hymnal," I had to look at the radio screen to figure out what song that was and who sang it. I've got it now. There are other beautiful songs on the album, too, but something about this one and "Oliver James" make me want to immerse myself in them.

Loved this album, I have been aware of them for a few years without hearing more than a few tracks, I let it play a 2nd time.

The vocal harmonies and complicated arrangements remind me immediately of the Beach Boys. Sparse and yet lush production. Beautiful melodies and harmonies. I'm not much of a modern folk kinda guy, but this is great. I also love when an album's cover perfectly matches the contents inside, and this pulls that off wonderfully. FIVE STARS

I listened to this while driving to work on a gloomy fall PNW day, with bright red and yellow leaves lining the country roads on my way to the big city. This was the perfect soundtrack for the first 25 minutes, and then it started to get weird and twee and I started thinking about the perfect Seattle Clinical Depression album, Death Cab's Transatlanticism. Anyway, if you want to feel like you're commuting through a fairytale to a tech bro metropolis in the gray of an early morning, Fleet Foxes has you covered.

Medieval folk. Dig it

At some point it gets kinda annoying. It is, however, unique and i like that. High 3

favs: white winter hymnal quiet houses he doesn’t know why your protector oliver james rating 2.3/5

no me gusto. Nada me parecio demasiado agradable, ni la musica ni la instrumentacion, ni las voces aunque hayan sido eso lo mas interesante. En algunos momentos las armonizaciones de las voces me recordo a esa banda inglesa, The Coral, aunque ellos me gustan mucho mas.

Couldn't help find this record lacking after getting stuck into it with punchy expectations. I found the folk indie sound a bit tiresome as it progressed, and there weren't a huge amount of standout moments to shout home about. It wasn't bad by any stretch - it's well produced and performed, but the tone of the album just doesn't land brilliantly with me.

This album unfairly, but understandably, gets derided as being part of the wave of "stomp clap hey" from the early 2010s. You know, Mumford and Sons, The Lumineers, the band that made that song that goes like "Alabama, Arkansas". In other words, some of the worst music to ever exist. Fleet Foxes don't fit this archetype for various reasons - I think there's a clear appreciation for folk music as a genre here that doesn't exist with those other bands. They're clearly still working with some of the same modes of songwriting as, say, Bon Iver, but I feel quite similarly about his early work as well, so that doesn't bother me. Take the standout track here, "White Winter Hymnal", for example. The various vocal melodies, all harmonising over one another but just distinct enough to the point that they have some character of their own. It's pulling straight out of the Beach Boys' playbook for God's sake! I won't argue that it doesn't contain some of the characteristics of my much maligned material that I mentioned earlier, but they're entirely aesthetic - and Fleet Foxes choose the right characteristics to keep here. There's something so warm and earnest about this album. You hear it on songs like "Ragged Wood", "Your Protector" and "Blue Ridge Mountains" (and even more on the sister EP Sun Giant, which features the monumental "Mykonos"). The very first time I listened to this album, I said to someone "this is what I wanted Animal Collective to sound like". That band has grown on me a hell of a lot more now, but there's still some truth in those words from my sixteen-year-old self. It's not overly precious or sentimental, it's just very good at what it's trying to do. 8/10 Do you NEED to listen it this before you die: No, Helplessness Blues is the more essential release from them.

As much as I cringe a little at the stomp clap era, this album is beautiful and I love an orchestral harmony.

I remember this album from when it broke initially, and I definitely wasn't ready to be a fan of this at 15 years old. I am now though, this is great. So sweeping and so pretty.

I adored the beginning of this album so much. The forest two songs were perfection. The rest of the album didn't pack as much of a punch for me, but it was still pretty good.

Forgot how good this album was. Was really into it when it came out, but haven't listened in years.

Yeah it's pretentious as hell, but it's not trying to be that way. I think these dudes really love their music and craft, it's the fan base of hipsters that ruin it. The music itself is alright

Surprised to see them on here, but I shouldn’t be, considering some of the backwash thats on here. I like these guys. Reminds me of my days in the mountains. This album is good. Not outstanding, but a pleasant listen.

I was against the idea of this sort of album when it came out, so I’m glad to be getting it now, in the context of having listened to a good bit of Sixties psychedelia on this list. Having heard, say, the Beau Brummels helps me make sense of what Robin Pecknold is trying to do here. This is neo-psychedelia in multiple senses, both in terms of sound and production (courtesy of 00s indie go-to guru Phil Ek) and also thematically. As with the first wave of psychedelia, this album seeks to provoke visions of communion with nature and freedom from worldly concerns of labor and survival - to just be free to *be*, man. Which I think is a big part of why I found this sort of thing so grating the first time around: if you want to just *be* then somebody else probably has to bankroll that for you, and that part of the story usually goes unacknowledged. The people I knew who were into this music - into this whole skinny-jeans-and-flannel aesthetic - were usually the same sort of people who would call themselves “broke college students” one minute and then in the next breath wonder why you aren’t going camping with them (because the idea that you’d have to *work*, at a *job*, never crossed their mind). Wandering uneasily through the cold mountain air, as Pecknold does on “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” may be harrowing - but it’s also a privileged thing to get to do. Thing is, I think Pecknold knows this on some level, even though he doesn’t want to. On “He Doesn’t Know Why” he tries to understand the plight of a haggard addict, right down to the twenty dollars in his hand (six less than Lou Reed, for those keeping count). And yet the track ultimately is about the failure to understand, the way Pecknold’s lack of experience with such things renders him unable to do anything more than just observe. “There’s nothing I can do,” he tells himself over and over - which may be both empirically correct and a quiet admission of defeat. Figures that he wanders back out into the woods for the rest of the album. Sonically, this is great - some of the best of its era and genre. I am over some of my bias against it. But I don’t connect with it, just like I didn’t really connect with the Beau Brummels. That’s probably my own hurt talking, maybe.

Um disco agradável, mas sem nenhuma atratividade adicional, ficando bem abaixo de outros do gênero.

Probably a good album but really not my vibe. Lost interest while listening to this in the background

Yep

This was pleasant enough. Good vocal arrangements. It didn't wow me, but I enjoyed it.

Good album, great to just relax to or do some work like cleaning, very folk indie vibes from it, feel like the band would call eachother moonbeam.

Skjønte ikke Fleet Foxes i 2008 og skjønner det ikke i dag heller. I det minste synger de ikke "HEY". Meget snill 3'er.

che vibes, mi sentivo heidi

Folksy acoustic indie with lots of harmonies feels like it should be right up my alley. Didn't hate it, but wasn't inspired at all.

really really mid

yeah man. these are bad reviews because i dont know these artists well at all! but so folk, will be studying some of these. also white winter hymnal is always a treat

Too country adjacent and slow

The lyrics are simple but complex, and also metaphorical. The instrumental parts: at the beginning only one then all of them togetherlike a choral. It remembers me sometimes at a Chorals in the church.

At first, I wasn’t really feeling it, but then the music grew on me…

“Next time is next time. Now is now.” Perfect Days (2023)

Sunday, 18 October, 2026 They sound good.

Boring it sounds the same most of the time, it also reminds me of my girlfriends parents music taste (which consists of the lumineers and Mumford and sons). I also just don’t like the 2000s folk revival much.

this blew my mind when it was released. was so sonically expansive and evocative of how i feel when in wild, open spaces.

Seattle grunge took a shower, quit the hard stuff, and went on a camping retreat, discovering that harmonizing was permitted and peaceful.

No me gustó

Boring uninspired folk 2/5

I’ve tried getting into Fleet Foxes in the past. I’ve listened to this album twice before, but on this listen I liked them a little more. The acoustic arrangements are very pretty and there are great vocals. This album hasn’t quite hit my favourites, but maybe it will grown on me some more. 3.5/5 Favourite track: Blue Ridge Mountains

Jippi, moderne Gubberock....

2010s yoi will live on forever

V pretty - 3.7

This album is right up my alley with many songs I loved already. Listening to the entire album made me love them more. Blue Ridge Mountains might be my favorite but Quiet Houses was an amazing hidden gem.

Wonderful!!

This album is sonically gorgeous

Los primeros temas del álbum me gustaron más que los últimos, pero estuvo bien.

sasma neloš indi pop-folk album, na trenutke baš lijep (»white winter hymnal«, »oliver james«!). kratak i slatak, no nije me toliko oduševio da bude za četvorku. možda preslušam još jednom pa promijenim mišljenje: nabolje ili nagore... [odslušao i napisao 12/10/26]

I just don’t think I’ll ever really enjoy this band. Sorry! It’s just so … placid?

listen again

good album!

Good bout nothing that stands out

good but borrrring.

Bien

Sun It Rises - 4/5 White Winter Hymnal - 4/5 Ragged Wood - 4.5/5 Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - 4/5 Quiet Houses - 4/5 He Doesn't Know Why - 4/5 Heard Them Stirring - 3.5/5 Your Protector - 4/5 Meadowlarks - 3.5/5 Blue Ridge Mountains - 4.5/5 Oliver James - 3.5/5 A solid debut for music to be listened to watching the sun rise/set over the wilderness. I don't think it progress past "it sounds pretty nice" for me but that's how folk seems to me. Overall: 4/5 Favorites: Ragged Wood, Blue Ridge Mountains

01) Sun It Rises - 7,5 02) White Winter Hymnal - 10,0 03) Ragged Wood - 8,0 04) Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - 8,5 05) Quiet Houses - 7,5 06) He Doesn't Know Why - 8,0 07) Heard Them Stirring - 8,5 08) Your Protector - 7,0 09) Meadowlarks - 7,5 10) Blue Ridge Mountains - 7,5 11) Oliver James - 7,0 TOTAL: 7,91 (79/100) Current ranking: 316/1062

Not an album I listened to on release despite it being my prime era for listening to music. I really enjoyed my listen today and wish I had listened back in 2008! It sounded so well produced, lovely folk like harmonies almost like it was recorded in the Canadian mountains. I heard and felt Simon and Garfunkel throughout the album and that was a great plus! Best track- the absolutely flawless ‘your protector’ but could have been a few others on another day- ‘ragged wood’ ‘meadowlarks’ and ‘white winter hymnal’ I loved too. Worst track- ‘he doesn’t know why’ and as the title says I don’t know why but I had to pick one. Very solid album, I really enjoyed and looking forward to listening again 9/10

A pretty solid album, I am glad I got this one in the fall, rather than summer. Some nice harmonies and good songs, but not something I would really find myself returning too. Low 4.

Indie Rock in the 2000s reinvented itself in a lot of different directions. One of those is Indie Folk. Fleet Foxes along with Bright Eyes, Bon Iver, and Iron and Wine were the most prominent Indie folk bands. Fleet Foxes differentiated themselves by being as pretentious as possible and boring at the same time. Just a joyous slug through 39 minutes of repetition. The follow up album, Helpnessness Blues, would’ve been better suited for inclusion. Drummer Josh Tillman joined and added some much-needed levity and fun to proceedings then promptly left for presumably greener pastures. I wonder what happened to that guy.

Decent indie rock. Hints of Mumford&Sons

Really enjoyable indie folk-rock album. I like the airy, dreamlike instrumentation throughout this. There’s also great harmonies, although sometimes I wish parts were a little more tuneful. Still really good.

Montage music for when you're on a lonely quest

Bloody loved this. On a couple of tracks the vocals reminded me a bit of Fyfe Dangerfield from Guillemots, who is one of my favourite singers so definitely not a bad thing. A great album with nothing even close to a dud track on it. I’ll be getting stuck into the rest of their discography after this. Top Track - Ragged Wood

More dreaded folk, but now the 21st century version. Surely I am due for some more punk or pop or simply anything else?!?!?? On a side note, the other 2008 album I can think of that I've had recently from the Generator was a bit meh (Goldfrapp), so I don't have particularly high hopes for this at the outset. Although I did quite like Elbow, so there's that...... Whilst well executed (nice vocals, competent playing) this is simply too dull to leave any lasting impression on this listener. Happy enough to have heard it once, but also happy never to hear it again.

It's really difficult to assign a 4 or 5 for this album. Since it's not an obvious 5 stars, I'll call it a 4. But it's a beautifully written, composed, arranged and played album. Such a beautiful combination of something that can be listened to in the background or intensely listening and engaging with it. 4.5 stars if I could.

Today is a Sunday and actually that is a perfect day for this record as some of the harmonies would fit quite nice in a church.I have tried this album multiple times over the years as for some reasons I am thinking that I should really like and dig this. But always left with a feeling that it did not grab me and the harmony singing even annoyed me. Tried this again few times again and my opinion switch from 2 to 4 stars and back to 2. The album is beautiful produced, the acoustic guitars sound so clear and fresh. And yes they have beautiful voices. So I almost try to force myself to like this and yes sometimes that happens but other times not and I get either bored or annoyed.

Rather enjoyed it at the start, then the stomp clap hey vibe kinda just all got a little monotonous. Definitely good though.

Та хуйня которую слушали хипстеры в своих красных клеточных рубашечках сидя в старбаксах типа на вайбике с макбуком в 2011 году. Крутая обложка, музыка boring ass shite

Listen to this album to add some whimsy to your life. Serene vocal arrangements with beautiful song writing make for a great pair. I'd be willing to give this album 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact that I know how good later releases are. This one still stands firmly in their catalog and is an incredible debut album for any band, and should be celebrated. I'm only giving it 4 stars because I believe they were to improve so much over the rest of their catalog with this as a starting point.

I appreciated this album cause it had a large than life sound at times and it made for good background music. With that said, I really didn't feel like this connected much to me, nor did I feel like it really varied much (all the songs kinda melted in together for me)

YES. An absolute favorite. The cover says it all: renaissance picture that, upon deeper inspection, reveals more odd/twisted things than you’d expect. Robin pecknold’s voice is amazing. Father John misty started off as the drummer. Just no skips.

This is far too saccharine for my taste 😐 Two stars…

Absolutely lush production and all in service of incredibly boring music to snooze off to. Just very tiring indie folk. Also, I’m gonna be biased against it in rating anyway because it feels like the key that unlocks a whole wave of artists and songs that were everywhere when I was a teenager that I didn’t like, and that I still don’t really like for their sort of softly-conservative retvrn pastoralist energy.

Lovely but sleep inducing

Chords & blend are the real stars of this album. I do not have enough flannels in my closet or IPAs in my cooler to fully enjoy this, but can admit that it was enjoy*able*. It kinda drags in a way that makes me not want to take it seriously, though. Highlight: He Doesn't Know Why

Such a grand, yet intimate sounding album. This album takes me away. 4.5/5.