Helplessness Blues is the newest album from Fleet Foxes, released May 3rd, 2011 on the Sub Pop record label. Helplessness Blues is the follow up to Fleet Foxes debut album, Fleet Foxes.
To get an idea of what Helplessness Blues is about, I think it’s important to understand it within the context of the critically acclaimed Fleet Foxes. Sophomore albums unfortunately carry the burden of being judged in light of their successful older brothers, and Helplessness Blues has big shoes to fill.
The appeal of Fleet Foxes (the album) lies in its distinctive, old school (dare I say antiqued?) aura, both lyrically and musically, produced in an age of Auto-Tune, Britney Spears-esqe lip synching and insipid hit singles proclaiming their love for specific twenty four hour periods of time. Fleet Foxes produces something new by doing something old, starting with the Irish tinged lead song Sun It Rises and maintaining this vintage approach to song-craft all the way through to the piquant and sweetly sad final track Oliver James, a psalm relaying the tale of a family from a bygone agrarian era gently transporting the body of a loved one in preparation for burial. Fleet Foxes (the band) seems to be from another age; their baroque-pop sound lays heavy emphasis on stringed instruments, strong vocals, immaculate harmonies, and verse, which speaks to experiences and perspectives of a pre-industrial age. Even the album art on their debut album was old fashioned; a detail of the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
With Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes has managed to maintain much of what was appealing about Fleet Foxes without screaming “renaissance fair” the way their debut album did. The vocals of lead singer Robin Pecknold are again flawless, the harmonies are downright breathtaking at times, and they’ve maintained the distinctive, heavily echoed affect from Fleet Foxes for much of the new album. Fleet Foxes has managed to bring their songs spiritually into the 21st century on Helplessness Blues without abandoning the overall sound that made their debut so appealing.
Thematically, Helplessness Blues revolves around the struggle to find ones place as one moves from the solipsism of youth into the responsibilities and realities of an ethical adulthood. The album opens with the lyric, “So now I am older/than my mother and father/when they had their daughter/now what does that say about me?”, and returns to the theme of “What does it look like for me to be an adult?” on several other songs. There’s a tangible sense of confusion mixed with a sincere desire to pursue the Aristotelian ideal of living A Good Life. Additionally, apples and apple related imagery make a handful of appearances. I’m not entirely sure I know what the symbolic importance of these repeated Malus references are, but they are very much noticeable.
Musically, the songs seem noticeably brighter in tone and tenor than on Fleet Foxes. An uncharitable interpretation might suggest Helplessness Blues is more “radio friendly” than the more dense Fleet Foxes, but personally I think it’s sufficient to say it’s just an upbeat, lighter album without having to reference all the classist inferences of radio accessibility. If Fleet Foxes is music for a grey, snowy winter day, Helplessness Blues seems a good fit for the first pleasant days of spring.
I also found hints of late 1970’s/ early 1980’s Genesis on Helplessness Blues – specifically Genesis’ albums Genesis, Duke, and And Then There Were Three. In general Helplessness Blues has a more progressive rock feel to it than Fleet Foxes. The songs are on average longer than on Fleet Foxes, and several of the songs are composed of multiple movements with distinct transitions between sections.
This leads to my only critique of what I think is an overall brilliant album: some of the songs seem to be made up of several shorter songs or musical ideas that the band couldn’t quite figure out how to extend into a full length single, so they decided to sew several of these songlettes together and make one long song. To their credit, I think they pull it off for the most part. If you’re not listening too closely, these franken-songs really work; the transitions between movements within the same song are neither jarring nor distracting. It’s only after multiple listens or closer inspection that you pick up on the idea that maybe some of the songs aren’t quite as coherent – lyrically or musically – as they seem to be on first blush.
But enough of the review. Let’s get to the songs!
Montezuma
A great opening song, introducing us to the lighter sound of Helplessness Blues while also reassuring fans of Fleet Foxes that this is still the same band they fell in love with on Fleet Foxes. The alliterative verse “Oh man what I used to be/oh man, oh my, oh me” is an instant ear worm.
Bedouin Dress
Following on with the theme of growing into responsible adulthood, Bedouin Dress finds the songwriter wrestling with his sense of obligation for everything he’s been provided growing up. It’s a genuinely catchy tune with a very sing-along-able bridge.
Sim Sala Bim
Fleet Foxes returns to the sound of Fleet Foxes here with an opening of gentle guitar and archaic lyrical references to “reciting incantations”. The song opens quietly but moves to a rocking acoustic guitar reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkle’s Cecelia.
Battery Kinzie
Another jaunty tune, Battery Kinzie borrows heavily but subtly from New Testament biblical imagery and metaphors for a ditty about unrequited love. I think. I’m not entirely sure.
The Plains/Bitter Dancer
The lyrics to this song are incomprehensible to me, but I think that’s part of the Fleet Foxes “thing”. If they sound mysterious enough, it somehow makes the songs seem more profound – and it works.
Helplessness Blues
This is the song that seems to be getting the most media attention. This is also the first song that seems, to me, to be two songs the band tried to shoehorn together. Helplessness Blues begins with powerful meditations on the value of being part of a cause larger than oneself. The song then transitions inexplicably to the protagonist pining for his own orchard to work on all his days and finding the joys of his own manual labors. Huh? Which is it? Do you want to be part of something bigger than yourself, or do you want to own your own business and be your own boss? Regardless, somehow I can envision this becoming an anthem performed at faux political rallies, jammed out by activist poli-sci majors advocating for the organized labor movement on campus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdVeKLvuJis
The Cascades
An instrumental. It’s Fleet Foxes. It’s exactly what you would expect an instrumental piece from Fleet Foxes to sound like. This is the song where I most strongly catch hints of Duke’s Travels from Genesis’ 1980 album Duke. Whether the similarities are intentional, I don’t know, but they’re definitely there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxaBJGSLKW0
Lorelai
Angsty longing for love, just beyond our reach. I do very much appreciate the use of what seems to be footsteps in a busy corridor to suggest the idea of being passed by and ignored by the world towards the end of the track.
Someone You’d Admire
Pecknold’s vocals are pitch perfect on the opening stanzas of this track, and soon accompanied by the usual great harmonies that characterize Fleet Foxes.
The Shrine/An Argument
This is, without a doubt, my favorite song on Helplessness Blues. It’s also the prog rock-iest; this is the song where the what-the-hell-just-patch-it-all-together approach to song writing is most clearly on display. At eight plus minutes it’s the longest song on the album and consists of four distinct movements. At the opening, Pecknold demonstrates the vocal power he first displayed on Tiger Mountain Peasant Song and Your Protector from Fleet Foxes. The song closes with an uncharacteristically discordant saxophone section underlined with strings in a minor key and some sort of Asian harp (also reminiscent of Genesis’ Duke). It’s jarring and attention-getting after luxuriating in the tight harmonies, pitch-perfect vocals, and comfortable rhyming schemes of much of the preceding album. I found this to be by far the most challenging but also the most interesting song on the album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_XXismYUZs
Blue Spotted Tail
Noticeably absent from Blue Spotted Tail is the ever present echo affect applied to the rest of the album. Just a singer, a stripped down guitar, and a mic. I can see this song being sung around many campfires this summer, or played softly as a lullaby to gently lull little hipster children to sleep at bedtimes all across Brooklyn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9hK019TnA&feature=related
Grown Ocean
Fleet Foxes closes off Helplessness Blues with an upbeat, rhythmic, strong finish with Grown Ocean. This is also the only official video from Helplessness Blues I could find on YouTube.