"Why in the night sky are the lights on?
Why is the earth moving 'round the sun?
Floating in a vacuum with no purpose, not a one.
Why in the night sky are the lights on?"
Some albums are special. I don't know about you, but time literally stops when I play
Helplessness Blues, the Seattle outfit's second release.
This is a timeless album indeed. I'd quiet humbly like to predict that Helplessness Blues is a sort of an album that will be remembered as one of the masterpieces in the history of music for the years to come. This is a sort of an album that I'd make my child listen.
I could talk about Fleet Foxes for pages, but I'd like to keep this one as brief as I can..
Robin Pecknold is an extremely talented raconteur. He tells stories from his life, from the "every-man" 's life which we could relate to incredibly vividly. He is so much more than a modern folk hero, he is one of the best lyricists of his generation, and perhaps of all times. When he starts to sing, you feel dragged, left with no chance of escaping from his profound stories. Helplessness Blues mostly contains songs in which an individual's worries and dreams about the future and his life are investigated. The chronological arrangement of the songs also hint a consciously constructed story line. Story of a man searching for love, questioning the meaning of life, making honest remarks along the way, and looking from a romantic perspective while doing all of this.
The musicianship exposed throughout the album is also breath taking. Every thought, every effect, every single voice is calculated and performed with a committed mastery. You can hear the sweat, blood, and hard-work put into this record in every breath, every note. A particularly impressing part, at least for me, is the percussion work of J. Tillman, which magically converts otherwise -still beautiful, yet- serene folk melodies into ambitious, majestic sounding chants, anthems, ballads. The overall melodic progressions of the band throughout the album are somewhat experimental, and innovative. Fleet Foxes not only carry so-called folk music into a grandeur stage but also suggest novel forms, arrangements, possibilities about modern music. A particularly interesting track relative to that idea is 'The Shrine / An Argument'...
This is an album that will be a myth in the history of music in the future, possessing a potential of influencing rising musicians, by its brave, honest, and innovative take on music. Whether it's the endless arsenal of instruments, the deeply-touching songwriting, or the bold progressive character, Helplessness Blues is an epic album. We are witnessing history.
