ALBUM: Crack-Up
I am going to keep listening to this album. Even though right now I don’t get it.
The heavy two-records of vinyl comes in an elegant package, sophisticated design.
The music is slow, sometimes building building to, what? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It’s one that, as with Father Misty’s Pure Comedy, deserves more listens to figure out what it is I cannot figure out. Josh Tillerman, aka as Father Misty, used to be the Foxes drummer. He left the band some time ago but you can see the connection still. between their sounds.
With Fleet Foxes, I started like I do with music, especially newer music like this. Ii ask the question:: Who do they sound like? Who did they grow up listening to?
Knee-jerk reaction would be to call them a modern Fairport Convention, a big folk rock band. But Fairport songs are more structured and are grounded in the European folk traditions. The Foxes run away from tradition and then shyly come back. Sometimes it just feels like so much background music even though they are making valiant attempts to whisper in your head. Other touch tones I threw on the wall to see if it stuck: Roxy Music, Sade, Nick Drake, Arcade Fire,Robert Wyatt. Was going to say OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, but OMD a little more poppy, as was Sade.
So I don’t know. Really hard to pigeon-hole, which is not a bad thing. Now if their multi-talented selves could figure out a way to avoid fading into the wallpaper. Again I’m coming at this with no context of their other work, and I’ll keep listening.
Another Ocean is a beautiful song but even it seems to fade into mist.
A commenter on their YouTube video said previous works have been more earthy and that this one is more watery. I’ll buy that.