The Daily Spin, August 10
Fleet Foxes | Fleet Foxes
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
Album: Fleet Foxes (2008)
Artist: Fleet Foxes
Link:
With their second EP, Sun Giant, in February of 2008, Fleet Foxes struck gold with ‘Mykonos’, a gently urging tune that, to date, remains the band’s most popular track by a pretty comfortable margin. It’s not hard to see why the track took off, a wobbly chorus in the second half spilling into beauty in a way that few folk bands have ever managed to achieve so artfully.
Fleet Foxes, the band’s debut album, gives the consistent impression that it’s chasing that high, a chameleon in genre, touching on anything ranging from folk to pop and never sticking to one feeling for any grand amount of time.
In most cases, I would denigrate that feeling, and I was tempted to at first, but upon continued examination, it becomes clear that this is a deeply enjoyable and proudly organic combination of tracks, the sort of homage and herald that feels blissfully authentic without ever pushing into the absurd. It’s not always perfect, and I will say that this is an album, that, for all my love for it, I’ve come back to maybe five or six times over the last ten years - but every once in a while, it sneaks into my conscious, and I’m always grateful for that.
Rating: 8.2/10
Best Tracks: Blue Ridge Mountains; White Winter Hymnal
Worst Tracks: Your Protector