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Originally posted by Wilsonna:

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Originally posted by Shadrach:

It reminds me of my neice when she plays piano and holds the reverb peddle down constantly because she thinks it makes everything sound beautiful.

That's what I do, too. And it does! Go reverb!

Yeah, the world must have sounded so much more wonderful in medieval times when everyone wore large metal helmets that covered their ears. Pretentious Saxon jerks...

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Too much reverb, even over good songs, makes my brain think "pretentious".

Hmm...I can completely understand if reverb is a turn-off for you, but its use is "pretentious"??

Pretentious how? Just out of curiosity...

Personally, I'm kind of a reverb junkie. I like that spacey quality in my music. Makes for good headphone listening - I feel like I'm more immersed in the music.

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Originally posted by TotalTrash:

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Too much reverb, even over good songs, makes my brain think "pretentious".

Hmm...I can completely understand if reverb is a turn-off for you, but its use is "pretentious"??

Pretentious how? Just out of curiosity...

Personally, I'm kind of a reverb junkie. I like that spacey quality in my music. Makes for good headphone listening - I feel like I'm more immersed in the music.

By pretentious I mean it makes it sound like the music is trying to be grander or more beautiful than the music really allows. It's colorful tassles and sequins on a dress that maybe isn't really all that well made or well worn.

In Fleet Foxes case, I think the dress really is fairly decent, but I'm still a little turned off by it.

I will say, like Vampire Weekend before them, I'll be surprised if this group will release anything else of significance after 2008. But I love being surprised. And what they do in the future really has no effect on the quality of this release.

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Originally posted by FragileKidA:
Plus, Eric's not a big fan of My Morning Jacket or Band of Horses so he not liking Fleet Foxes is no surprise.

Lies!!!

BoH made my top 30 last year, as did MMJ's Z.

I will say that I like MMJ's more rocking and less traditional stuff though.

Fleet Foxes sounds like early MMJ, which is a little boring, IMO.

And yeah, lay off the reverb, Fleet Foxes. They sound like their playing from the bottom of a well.

Doesn't anyone remember that My Morning Jacket recorded At Dawn in a grain silo? That sound is what got them noticed in the first placed. It's not like they just decided to throw in a little reverb in the studio like a Paris Hilton or Leona Lewis. Let's give credit where credit is due. Not every band has that kind of artistic vision.

So where was this album recorded? A den? lol

Very good on the whole, my only qualm is that it finishes kinda weak with Meadowlark a little ehh, Blue Ridge Mountains more ehh, and Oliver James distinctly boring.

This is why I hate Rolling Stone - from their Fleet Foxes review:

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A lower-dosage Animal Collective, the Foxes stuff their free-form songs with rich, swirling melodies...

A 'lower-dosage Animal Collective'??? Really? Really??? Does anyone hear that at all?

They are just totally clueless as a so-called "music" publication.

'Blue Ridge Mountain' is the track of the album in my opinion, although your right in saying its surrounded by two of the weakest offerings on the LP.

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Originally posted by TotalTrash:
This is why I hate Rolling Stone - from their Fleet Foxes review:

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A lower-dosage Animal Collective, the Foxes stuff their free-form songs with rich, swirling melodies...

A 'lower-dosage Animal Collective'??? Really? Really??? Does anyone hear that at all?

They are just totally clueless as a so-called "music" publication.

Yeah it's pretty dumb... although the harmonies of white winter hymnal are vaguely reminiscent of for reverand green or fireworks choruses.

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Doesn't anyone remember that My Morning Jacket recorded At Dawn in a grain silo? That sound is what got them noticed in the first placed. It's not like they just decided to throw in a little reverb in the studio like a Paris Hilton or Leona Lewis. Let's give credit where credit is due. Not every band has that kind of artistic vision.

I agree with this. Too much reverb. BUT, i like the music quite a bit, and it's good if i want to hear what My Morning Jacket's mellow little brother would sound like. No, seriously, i like this album a bit, don't know about the heaps of praise bestowed upon it, but it tickles my fancy right now.

And what's with people denying the BoH & MMJ comparisons? That was what immediately jumped out about this band to me, but that's not a bad thing at all. Actually, it makes me happy that people are emulating one of the best rock bands out there (My Morning Jacket that is), even though Fleet Foxes' vocals tend to go different places than Jim James. Tonally, the vocals are similar (sure, they lack the distinctly Southern tone i guess), but in execution they're substantially different.

I've had this for like 3 months and it still hasn't completely won me over... That often means it's a grower, and will last a long time.

I wouldn't have a problem with people calling FF "MMJ lite" if they hadn't put out a much superior album to MMJ's latest.

That said, I haven't heard anything as good as, say, "Gideon" or "One Big Holiday" from Fleet Foxes yet, and I'm not sure I will. Evil Urges was just meh.

KABOOM! A 9.0 from P4K. I'd say that's about right. My guess is, this score will somewhat set the standard to which this up-and-coming crop of hot albums (Hold Steady, Wolf Parade, Deerhunter, etc.) gets measured.

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Originally posted by goathouse's enlarging prostate:
KABOOM! A 9.0 from P4K. I'd say that's about right. My guess is, this score will somewhat set the standard to which this up-and-coming crop of hot albums (Hold Steady, Wolf Parade, Deerhunter, etc.) gets measured.

I just saw that, seems a little high, but then again, a 9.2 for the new No Age seemed a bit high for me as well. My tastes are a bit different than theirs, so i'd have given this more like an 8.3 or something, which is what they gave "It Still Moves" if I'm not mistaken, which this album most definitely does NOT eclipse.

Is it just me, or did the review not really talk about the music as much as the bands place in the pantheon of indie-rock/pacific northwest indie-pop? The review was boring, tepid, and useless in my opinion, and lead on a bit of a lower score from how i interpreted it. Oh well, I'll keep listening, maybe this album will grow to the point where i think it's absolutely amazing, who knows.

Yeah, after many listens, it just doesn't do anything for me. Nothing groundbreakingly fantastic about this. Don't get me wrong, the album isn't bad. I just don't think it deserves the 9.0.

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I just don't think it deserves the 9.0.

I was a little conflicted on this album as well. It's as solid an 8 as can be, uniqueness alone giving it that. The songs do tend to blur together, but for me, taken as a whole, it's fully deserving of a 9. And to avoid a rabble; by uniqueness I don't, of course, mean innovation. If this were the first of its kind, it'd obviously get an 11.

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Originally posted by goathouse's enlarging prostate:

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I just don't think it deserves the 9.0.

I was a little conflicted on this album as well. It's as solid an 8 as can be, uniqueness alone giving it that. The songs do tend to blur together, but for me, taken as a whole, it's fully deserving of a 9. And to avoid a rabble; by uniqueness I don't, of course, mean innovation. If this were the first of its kind, it'd obviously get an 11.

Oh, you're working with a 100 unit scale? then I agree.

Honestly though, I don't Hate it, but I still feel like I'm looking at the wrong side of the painting with this one.

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Oh, you're working with a 100 unit scale? then I agree.

Ha Ha. Actually I am. In which case a 1 is equivolent to a 10, not a zero, and 11 is 110.

I just think this album has that uncommon ability to cast a spell over the listener. I that regard, it somewhat reminds me of Grizzly Bear rather than some of the other comparisons being made.

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Originally posted by goathouse's enlarging prostate:
...it somewhat reminds me of Grizzly Bear rather than some of the other comparisons being made.

I could see that. Although, I really really like The Grizzly Bears.

I keep on reading comparisons to Grizzly Bear, and quite frankly, I don't hear it.

I love both bands, but to me, they sound nothing alike. The only common thread is reverb. Otherwise Fleet Foxes is more rootsy, Crosby, Stills and Nash folk kinda sounding.

Please excuse me if that was a poorly worded sentence.

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Originally posted by cuneyt81:
I keep on reading comparisons to Grizzly Bear, and quite frankly, I don't hear it.

It's something of a stretch, yeah, but they both have that just-ate-a-bunch-of-shrooms thing going for 'em... if you ask me.