The gist of this post comes down to the four words above, so you may as well start your download or playlist now, then come right on back here. Born from a Seattle suburb, this five-piece group makes beautiful and harmonic melodies that evoke a sense of spatiality, peace, and calm. In 2008, the group's excellent Sun Giant EP debuted, followed by their still-better self-titled LP (see left).
Leads Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset share a gift for creating masterful and wonderous vocal arrangements, which seems to sonically differentiate Fleet Foxes from other folk-influenced contemporaries such as The Dodos, Bon Iver, and Iron & Wine. The music comes across as wide as a national park (see video). Percussion is rhythmic and upbeat when present, expressed with excited tambourines, simple shakers, open and acoustic tom-work, not so unlike that of Grizzly Bear's Christopher Bear. Instrumentation is somewhat varied, at least for the genre, predominately featuring a two-acoustic-guitars, vocals, and drums lineup. The group does well integrating electric guitar (Sun it Rises), mandolin (Blue Ridge Mountains), and flute (Your Protector), evoking different moods as they see fit. The overall mood is one of mature calm, painted in the utmost of sincerity by a young band destined to make more beautiful music in the coming years. Hear them for yourself.
Yellowstone from Andrew Curtis on Vimeo.
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