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The mixing is awesome, the basslines are great. It's a little sleepy at times, especially "You're a friend to me". And the lyrics in general are pretty meh. "We are family" is quite corny in that department. "Thinking of you" is a noteworthy bop. It's no wonder the African American musical tradition is appropriated so much.
3/5
Best song: "Thinking of you"
Worst song: "You're a friend to me"
Boring chord progressions. Drums sound cool, but the lack of dynamics drag them down. In general, the album lacked dynamic range. I think in general I don't really care for heavy metal guitars. They sound like they're trying too hard to be heavy, like it's kinda cringe.
I liked the unison between the vocals and guitar in Phantom of the Opera. And in general that song went on more of a journey than the others.
I like the storytelling nature of Strange World. Those two felt unique, the rest sort of blended into background noise.
I guess heavy metal is too close in proximity to so many better genres. I prefer most other *metals*, besides hair metal. And it has occasional prog-ish classical influences that just ain't prog enough to get me prog-pogging.
We are two-for-two on listening to albums that feel like genre identifiers. Giving my thoughts on this album especially feels like just giving my thoughts on the genre as a whole. Idk, not very stand-out-y.
Favs: Phanton of the Opera, Strange World
Leasts: Running Free
2/5
Cool rhymes with fool.
2.5/5
This was a great listen while driving home along the Bear River. Great sound, great songwriting.
Favs: Bell Bottom Blues, Layla
Leasts: none
3.5/5
I like Otis's voice. Sometimes the lyrics are pretty solid, other times they leave a lot to be desired. It's a mixed bag for sure. Some very enjoyable songs, some duds. "Shake" is the cupid shuffle from a universe with a god that intervenes on human suffering more (derogatory). "My Girl" is "Sweet Caroline" in that same universe (commendatory).
W: Ole man trouble, My Girl,
L: Shake, Rock me baby
3/5
Is George the best Beatle?
Favs: What is life, Apple Scruffs
Leasts: Wah-Wah
4/5
I'm a fake Jimi fan for never having listened to this before. What a ride. A Jimi Hendrix Experience, you could say.
I'm conflicted on if this is a 5/5 or not, since I don't care for Wait Until Tomorrow. I think it could grow to a 5/5 with time but I'll leave it just below that for now. This is definitely the kinda album to use my Graywhale balance on.
W: If 6 was 9, One Rainy Wish
L: Wait until tomorrow
4.5/5
Mad Verse City Album. Just takes itself too seriously for me I think.
Hello, Mr. Cereal?
I'm top-notch, you're playin' hopscotch
W: Eat Em Up L Chill
L: Mr. Goodbar, Milky Cereal
2/5
It's good but not jaw dropping. It never takes me by surprise the way a great album would. That being said, most of the songs are pretty good. Sympathy for the devil is a master and margarita reference, btw B^)
W: Sympathy for the devil, Prodigal Son, Salt of the Earth
L: none?
3.5/5
What kind of f*ckery are you? 'side from Sammy you're my best black Jew.
When you smoke all my green, man, you gots to call the green man.
Industry plant vibes. Possibly racist. Back to black? Sus.
Just friends is reggae. I'm not losing my mind here.
I think maybe Mikell would like this album a lot more than me.
W: Love is a losing game
L: Tears dry on their own, He can only hold her, addicted
1.5/5
The echoey piano in the title track is uninspired.
Actually pretty much all of the percussion and samples are super uninspired. The blao blao airhorn is a funny sound, but basically every sound including that one sounds like it was just dragged into the timeline from a default FL Studio sample pack. No further production except making it more grating.
To be fair, I think some music ends up over-produced. I had a tendency to over-produce in some of my music classes. To be fair, I think some "just use the default" stuff is really good. The stardew valley soundtrack is mostly just default synths and samples. But everything is arranged in a much more interesting way than what I'm seeing here. So because of stardew's strengths, the default sounds come across as endearing. On this album, it comes across as boring and lazy.
Bro thinks he's biggie 💀 doing a phone recording thing on corn on the curb. Cringe.
Idk man, this sounds like a YouTube diss track. Like idubbbz or something.
His flow is okay. It's never very impressive. It's never very artful. It's never very catchy. It's just okay.
Genuinely unlistenable at times. It ain't safe is ear-grating. I imagine my listening experience on this one is similar to y'all's experience watching Don's Plum.
"Getting laffy taffy with the hoes" kinda goes hard tho.
"Ladies Hit Squad" tries something at least a little bit with the mree mree thing. Unfortunately, it sounds awful. It's annoying.
"Don't eat pussy? Liar, you're just a actor." (Sopranos reference)
Waait Sopranos diss tracks would be awesome. Chrissy rapping about Ton' would be aaaawesome.
W: numbers
L: corn on the curb, it ain't safe
1/5
Catch up time. This one was pretty good. I'm not paying too much attention tbh. But it is catchy and clean throughout. I do not vibe with the whispering stuff.
W: Spike Island
L: Any that whispered too much
3/5
I honestly feel more or less the same way about this as I did about Beggars Banquet. I recognize that this might ostracize me. I have to speak my truth. It's quite good, but never jaw-dropping. I think my grandpa might've seen Santana live. Also Oye Como Va playing *the lick* is funny.
W: Oye Como Va, probably others
L: none?
3.5/5
I almost watched Virgin suicides with milady just the other day but the wired wasn't working. It's a pretty good movie. I need to rewatch it.
I wonder how many soundtracks are on the list? I hadn't really considered it as a possibility. Reviewing a movie soundtrack as an album is kinda weird. Am I supposed to do it as if it isn't a soundtrack? Like, pretend I didn't know it was a soundtrack? On the one hand it feels weird to give the album brownie points for anything outside the medium of sound, on the other hand it does the album a disservice to ignore how it works within the movie.
This album is kind of mid on its own, maybe. Moon Safari is just way way better. But as a soundtrack, it's pretty awesome. Virgin suicides is pretty reliant on a good soundtrack. If not for this soundtrack, the premise wouldn't stick to the audience very well. This is great music to watch virgins kill themselves to.
I think it is just barely shy of a 4/5. Unlike some other soundtracks, I don't think I'd ever get this on vinyl.
W: The Word Hurricane, Highschool Lover
L: ghost song, suicide underground (spoilers, man)
3.5/5
It deleted my notes. Bummer. All in all, pretty good album. Maybe with time it's one of want on vinyl. Every now and then it's nice to have a consistent indie album to put on. Low stakes but not braindead. Pavement is a bit like that for me.
W: soul and fire, a few others forgor
L: sister, cliche
3/5
This album is the sort that I can imagine a meathead normie enjoying alongside someone with the worst politics ever. And me left dumbfounded on what they get out of it.
Some songs maybe overstay their welcome, but in general the sound is great. Expressive lyrics, great production, virtuosic performances.
My favorite and least favorite tracks are the same because I am a milquetoast baby.
W: War Pigs, Iron Man
L: War Pigs, Iron Man
4/5
this is a fun listen. I like how connected and jammy it is. I think jam music is usually not super great. Like some people love King Gizzard, but most of their stuff is a 3/5 for me. Ditto here.
3/5
Shoegaze is good. There's a lot of better shoegaze out there.
3/5
I listened to this one 3 and a half times because I couldn't decide how to feel about it. It's definitely an album that's trying to be an album. The songs tell a story. But that story sometimes just isn't very good, maybe. I struggle to relate much to the two "rich kid" songs. But maybe I find it preferable to rap/r&b songs that just gush about having tons of money. Idk.
I might be going crazy, but I'm pretty sure the vocal track peaks throughout the album. I don't think it's a stylistic lo-fi thing. It's most noticeable in Sweet Life. When he says "weren't" in the first line. Am I crazy? It makes it seem like they just did one audio take and didn't bother re-recording parts that peaked. Lazy/cynical or amateur/naive?
The songs have somewhat inconsistent layered production. It reminds me a bit of Jockstrap. Not so much the end product, but the production philosophy I guess. I like it generally, like they're taking risks. Sometimes it lands and sometimes it doesn't. Through multiple listens, I noticed I was gravitating towards different songs each time. So it's almost random on where it lands and where it doesn't. Except maybe Crack Rock, that's a certified banger for me. It might end up in the vocal stim rotation.
I had listened to this album before today, but I didn't really get the hype. The album started as a 2.5 on my first listen, then went up to a 3, and now it sits at a 3.5. Idk where it'll be long-term. I was kinda hoping on the third listen it would spur a bit so I could stop rating things 3 stars. Oh well. I am who I am.
W: Crack Rock
L: Sweet Life
3.5/5
This is so generic. Nothin to say. I didn't need to listen to this before I die. And I have no need to ever listen to it again. Particularly terrible cover of born to be wild. Terrible uninspired lyrics about bein bad, baby.
Rick Rubin produced this. God or fraud?
W:
L: Born to be wild, outlaw
1/5
Ms. Jackson is about me apologizing to Anna for eating a PB&J
What a stanky album. I love it. I think it has some awkward moments lyrically that stop it from being a 5, but it has a lot of incredible tracks. Great production. Eclectic beats that feel alive.
W: snappin & trappin, B.O.B.
L: I'll call b4 I cum
4/5
Has some value. Some tracks are borderline musak. Others are kinda neat. More quirky than artful, I think. It's quite 80s.
I listened to this at work, and when I got home I could not remember what I listened to at all. I couldn't even remember the genre. So that knocks the score down a fair bit imo.
W: Horsin Around
L: Bonny
1.5/5
Grunge is weird. If genres are areas of excavation for musicians, grunge has been mined through almost completely. And most of it kinda sucks. However, there is gold to be found in grunge hills. Nirvana is quite obviously incredible. But within the same genre, excavators found nickelback. This area is filled with a terrible malaise of terrible music. There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for grunge.
So, where is pearl jam? Well, they're no Nirvana. But they have some good songs. There is clear musical talent and pop sensibilities throughout Ten. But, as with a lot of grunge, it sounds a little samey. So the album overall consists of a few memorable singles and a pile of single soundalikes. Fool's gold that glitters just as much as the real stuff but lacks in value.
Idk. It's fine. The hit tracks are pretty good. But I don't really care for pearl jam's sound, or their lyrics, or their vocals. They make things too echoey, so riffs that would sound sharp if played by another band sound floppy instead. Even though I seem to have a lot of complaints, the album isn't bad by any means. It isn't annoying. It isn't a crime against music like some other inclusions on this list. It has a hint of malaise to it, but maybe that's what makes grunge grungy.
W: Even flow, black
L: oceans, garden, deep
2.5/5
I listened to this on repeat while cleaning. I've listened to fever ray before and remember liking it. I hadn't heard this album before. It's pretty alright. I wish they'd get weirder with it. I like their album Radical Romantics more, it's weirder throughout.
W: concrete walls
L:
2.5/5
It's alright, I guess. Pretty boring, especially the arrangement. Basic drums, guitar, and bass for most of most songs. Never offensive. I wonder if this is anyone's favorite band and if so why.
W: Hokoyo
L: Louise Louise
2/5
NOTE: You should copy my whole review and paste it into a markdown renderer. There are plenty free ones online. Go ahead, do it.
Kevin O-Leary might love this album. It sounds good. The songwriting is good. What does it make me feel? Idk.
I think this album is technically proficient but lacks sincerity. This was produced by Phil Ek, who has worked on a lot of pretty great stuff, including bands I've seen perform live. Maybe this album would be nothing without him. I've seen both *Modest Mouse* and *The Shins* at Ogden Twilight, and I own a record from each. They're both pretty iconic millenial indie rock bands. I'm not always in the mood for that sort of thing, but they're *good* bands. I think they have stories to tell, and they sound good. Phil Ek also produced *Duster*'s Stratosphere and *Built To Spill*'s *Keep It Like a Secret*, both of which I think are incredible albums. Phil knows his stuff. He knows his indie rock. He knows how much art there is to be made in the Pacific Northwest, which is where most of his collaborations take place.
I have an album recommendation. The Glow Pt. 2 by the Microphones. It came out on 9/11, 7 years before *Fleet Foxes*, meaning it totally could've been on the list but isn't. It should be. Maybe it has too much of a soul for this list. It has become one of my favorite albums of all time. It is a very Pacific Northwest musical experience. The music feels foggy and it takes inspiration from *Twin Peaks*.
# The Chart
Ok so how do I rate *Fleet Foxes*? Imagine a 2-axis chart with sound and substance used to rate music. I think *Fleet Foxes* has good sound and middling substance.
Ok now stop using your imagination and instead look at one I made. I didn't give a ton of thought into my placements. You can see, for example, that Math Rock has good sound but low substance. What makes Midwest Emo different from Math Rock is that it has higher substance while not relying on musical prowess so much.
```mermaid
quadrantChart
x-axis Bad Sound --> Good Sound
y-axis Low Substance --> High Substance
quadrant-1 Great Art
quadrant-2 Outsider Art
quadrant-3 Trash
quadrant-4 Hacky
Fleet Foxes: [0.6, 0.4]
Decemberists: [0.55, 0.55]
Rush, supposedly: [0.75, 0.3]
"Wesley.goToHell()": [0.1, 0.8]
Daniel Johnston: [0.3, 0.9]
Jandek: [0.25, 0.7]
Imagine Dragons: [0.4, 0.15]
Taylor Swift: [0.45, 0.3]
Skepta: [0.25, 0.25]
Crywank: [0.5, 0.75]
John Coltrane: [0.9, 0.85]
Midori: [0.75, 0.65]
Microphones: [0.8, 0.9]
Stereolab: [0.8, 0.55]
Bjork: [0.75, 0.75]
Math Rock: [0.8, 0.4]
Christian Rock: [0.3, 0.35]
Midwest Emo: [0.6, 0.6]
Stomp-clap-hey: [0.5, 0.2]
Jazz: [0.85, 0.7]
"“Jazz“": [0.1, 0.1]
```
So, that's where I think *Fleet Foxes* sits. And that spot makes it a little tricky for me to rate. Some other music I can justify a high rating by latching onto its substance, like a lot of Outsider Music. Music with bad sound I can justify with a low rating because it sounds bad.
I've talked about the fact that I think *Fleet Foxes* is insincere more than I've talked about why. I'll try my best to show what I mean with an example, but the *substance* axis is just way more subjective. It sits just out of frame of my blurry metacognition.
# An Intimate Song
In *An Intimate Song* by *Crywank*, the lyrics mention snow.
> If I become nostalgia,
> You'll always love me more.
> It snowed today,
> triple layers and mittens,
> three inches on the fencepost,
> subzero playlist
To me, snow is used as a metaphor for the memory of someone or something lost by the singer. I hear Jay (the singer) say that they lost a connection with someone, and say that it snowed today. And I believe them on both matters. What's more, now and ever since I've heard that song when it snows, I feel something intimate that Jay wanted me to feel. I think about what I've lost. I think about how I am remembered. I do a quick crywank.
# Avalanches
In *Avalanches* by *Jordaan Mason & The Horse Museum*, the lyrics mention snow.
> But if snow is like skin
> It pulls away so easy
> Right from the body
> What if all stripped wood is branches
> And all frozen lakes are water
> Then our bodies will be avalanches
Snow is used as a metaphor for body dysmorphia. Jordaan (the singer) is trying to talk about their body and is coming up short. The ontological complexities of the body are difficult to communicate through language. This is true, also, for the ontological complexities of snow. It's something so simple to understand that Jordaan tells us about how it falls and piles and peels away in a way that could be understood by someone who has never seen snow. When I hear this, I know that Jordaan has seen snow fall and I know that when they saw snow falling they saw themselves. And now whenever it snows, I see myself a little bit, too.
# White Winter Hymnal
In *White Winter Hymnal* by *Fleet Foxes*, the lyrics mention snow.
The singer is with a group bundled together in the snow. A character, Michael, leaves the group. Michael falls into the snow, and bleeds. It is an interesting song with interesting lyrical imagery. But for me, I don't believe with much confidence that Robin (the singer) has ever so much as seen snow. Probably Robin has seen snow, but I don't really know that. I don't really connect with Robin's human experience when I hear this song.
It feels like a creation made by someone who has heard about snow second-hand. They heard everything about snow. They heard how "Winter kept us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A little life with dried tubers." They understood many of the things they heard. But they never saw it, and they never felt it. And I think that is a prerequisite to make truly substantive art involving snow. Even if this individual wanted to make substantive art about snow with every fiber of their being, they would always come up short. It's tragic, really. Their body doesn't match their soul.
Maybe I don't like *Fleet Foxes* because it doesn't feel dysphoric enough. What *An Intimate Song* and *Avalanches* have in common, perhaps, is that they are both written and sung by nonbinary people. Maybe that has substance to me in a way that I can't really talk about directly, but it has substance I can feel.
> Between avalanches we can find our language
# Closing thoughts
It's pretty good ig. I try to listen to the albums with the lyrics pulled up, and *Heard Them Stirring* is just embarrasing. Also, *White Winter Hymnal* has a cover by *Pentatonix* from one of their Christmas albums. Milady knew the song already because of that.
Man I didn't even talk about stomp-clap-hey music. Well the short of it is this has a slight vibe of stomp-clap-hey music. Which is bad imo.
**W**: Blue ridge mountains, tiger mountain peasant song, he doesn't know why
**L**: heard them stirring, meadowlarks
tl;dr *Fleet Foxes* in one word: *gentrified*
2.5/5
This sounds a lot like the byrds. Queen of eyes is a track that made me do a double take on the artist. And the byrds are basically a bob dylan cover band in the style of the beatles.
I accidentally listened to a decent chunk of the super long version.
Just not very unique.
W: empty girl, insanely jealous, you'll have to go sideways, old pervert
L: underwater moonlight, he's a reptile, where are the prawns, weh weh hep uh hole, rock n roll toilet
2/5
