I picked up the vinyl version of "Helplessness Blues" this Friday and just finished listening to it for the first time. Allmusic.com's reviewer refers to the Fleet Foxes music as "baroque folk-pop," which I think is an apt description as could be penned. The first thing that stands out on initial listening to me is that the melodies on their second full length release are not as memorable as those on their last release. I was not familiar with them when I put their 2008 "Fleet Foxes" cd in to play and I was stopped dead in my tracks when "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" came on, it was the melodic equal of the best of anything their often cited influences could have written. Nothing on "Helplessness Blues" stands out like that. The opener, "Montezuma," might be the refutation of that perspective though, it's a beautiful song. The album is a dense mix with more subtle songs that will no doubt grow on you as it becomes more familiar. Sometimes, it sounds a little too clever for it's own good. The second half of the first song on side four, "The Shrine/An Argument," sounds a little too much like late Coltrane meets an angry swarm of hornets.
The physical production of the lp is fantastic. It's a nice flat and near silent pressing in heavy vinyl. I've not heard the vinyl release of their 2008 album, I'd read in a couple different places that the cd sounded better. Their newest release on vinyl has all the reasons we buy vinyl instead of cd's on abundant display. It might not rival an old Chesky disc, but I'd give about four out of five stars for sound compared to the best I've heard. There's not really enough music to fill out all four sides with the usual amount of music, side three only comes in at about 10 minutes. They could have released this a three sided album like Johnny Winter did with "Second Winter."
