Deadwing
(Cincinnati OH) | | Posted: Aug 13, 2011 - 05:31 | |
Stingray wrote:When "FF" got bigger around 2008, I was surprised to read all the great critics
they got for their first album. I knew only the "single", but got curious enough to
download the the whole album!
I could not be more surprised! I "hated" it. Any single song. Or didn't I understand
what was considered to be the future of folk-rock? Some said they sound like
C,S,N & Y. Others mentioned the Beach Boys...! Sooooorry...? Beach Boys? Crosby,
Still, Nash & Young...? Really? Had I lost my mind, did I not know any longer what
good music was? Literally "everybody" seemed to understand and like, even LOVE
the Fleet Foxes! I remained stunned and forgot about them!
Their new album came out recently! The "intellectual" cover turned me off immedeately!
But the critics remained so say the same stuff. Great album! Incredible even. And definitely
the future of folk-rock! Sorry...? Whaaaaat? Rock? Rooooock??? Certainly - not anything
has to sound like "Hell's Bells" or "Smoke on the water" to get the rock label, but mentioning
the Fleet Foxes and Rock together in one breath was blasphemy.
Finally I saw a photo of the "new" band, together with their sixth member. What a good laugh
that was! Amazing how they disguised themselves in student-beards, second-hand clothes, self-made
shawls (girlfriend's jobs, I bet or gifts from worshipping fans) and WW-1 boots. It doesn't take
much to surround yourself with old-school Nirvana credibility.
Still - I downloaded the second album too (for free, of course!). All this critics could not be wrong.
I had to be me. Hadn't I hated Björk, Porcupine Tree and Radiohead too - at first, before I grew into
liking, loving and understanding them. The same tactics had to be applied now: Great evening after
an even greater day (perfect mood, in other words), window wide open to inhale German cherry-tree scents,
plus the recreational use of last years window-harvest, something powerful enough to turn "Tea for the
Tillerman" into Nu Speed Goth.
Music started! Immedeately a feeling of weirdness. That was neither rock not folk, that was just...odd.
And boring! Song two, three, four, five, six - nothing changed. I was confident to hear it and ready to
forgive them my pains. Nothing was good for the ears, so far! Nothing! Would they not even be able to
deliver the single one good song that even Costello cannot do without? Not many bands can - the Fleet
Foxes did exactly that on two albums in a row!
No melody (yes-yes)! No guitar! No lead vocal! No rythm! Nothing that remotely smells like Rock, even Folk.
How the hell can a bunch of twenty-something year olds be that boring? How may their concerts sound
and what is the spirit of their gigs? Retired Hippies holding candles? 17 year old Philosophy students
anti-pimped in garage-sale cloths, following the boys throughout the country, loving anything they do? Possibly
more likely a social event than Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll? Or could you imagine to have sex with a
band giving you a completely helplessness blues?
I think I have everything that FF has ever put out. I never find myself in a "I have GOT to listen to some FF" mood. I really love the song Mykonos, but I am beginning to think that they just got lucky on that one. I think FF is like the Emporer's New Clothes. The critics all fall down in disbelief because of their "brilliance and cutting edge approach" to music. They ARE different. SURE, I agree with that, but they really tend to bore the shit out of me  I saw them live and it seemed like a few people that had never met before showing up for a temp job and trying to make the best of it and trying to "out wierd" each other in a very hipster way. I hope it was an off night keke |
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peter_james_bond
(West Of The Burg) | | Posted: Jul 28, 2011 - 14:25 | |
sirdroseph wrote:Ok, it is official. This whole album is very good!
 When you're right, you're right!  |
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bluematrix
(confluence of mississippi and missouri rivers) | | Posted: Jul 28, 2011 - 09:46 | |
vandal wrote:
I never thought I'd see myself write this to you, but I like and agree with this post. To me, in my humble opinion, FF are nothing. I've seen them live twice at big festivals and they are just as boring and pointless in person as they are digitized and streamed.
I have to second this, and thought stingray expressed my feelings towards this pretty well too. |
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vandal
(arriving somewhere, but not here. . .) | | Posted: Jul 28, 2011 - 09:44 | |
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misterbearbaby
(Marina del Rey, California) | | Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:46 | |
Like lukewarm tea... While they're playing on the radio I find myself saying "Hmmm... I should put on some music."
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smackiepipe
(Western North Carolina) | | Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:44 | |
andrewmi wrote:Anyone else hear Happy Jack in here?
Yea! Someone else heard it, too! That little hint of the original Wild Wild West theme. |
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sirdroseph
(Yes) | | Posted: Jul 21, 2011 - 10:42 | |
Ok, it is official. This whole album is very good!
|
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Baby_M
(a 100+-year old building in downtown Akron, Ohio) | | Posted: Jul 05, 2011 - 12:48 | |
Battery Kinzie is a gun emplacement, part of Fort Worden, an old coast defense fort on Puget Sound. An Officer and a Gentleman was filmed there.
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1wolfy
(Mission Viejo California) | | Posted: Jul 05, 2011 - 12:44 | |
for a second, I thought this may be the Plastic Ono Band
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Baby_M
(a 100+-year old building in downtown Akron, Ohio) | | Posted: Jun 21, 2011 - 08:33 | |
I think this "Battery" needs a little time in the recharger.
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peter_james_bond
(West Of The Burg) | | Posted: Jun 16, 2011 - 13:53 | |
I love great acoustic music and songs drenched in sweet harmonies, so naturally I love this band. I like a comparison that AMG makes between this album and the last FF one... I paraphase a bit here..."on the band’s first record, 'they' painted simple geographical portraits with songs like “Sun It Rises,” “Ragged Wood,” “Quiet Houses,” and “Blue Ridge Mountains.” On Helplessness Blues, 'they' are just as interested in the landscape of the human heart."
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Pharlap
(Bahama, NC) | | Posted: Jun 16, 2011 - 13:15 | |
what IS all the hububb about?
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vandal
(arriving somewhere, but not here. . .) | | Posted: May 26, 2011 - 08:08 | |
Stingray wrote:When "FF" got bigger around 2008 < . . . > completely helplessness blues? I never thought I'd see myself write this to you, but I like and agree with this post. To me, in my humble opinion, FF are nothing. I've seen them live twice at big festivals and they are just as boring and pointless in person as they are digitized and streamed. |
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helgigermany
(Germany) | | Posted: May 22, 2011 - 22:56 | |
fredriley wrote:More nu-Nu-Folk? We only had The Decembrists a few songs ago. Ah well, a trend's a trend. IMO these are on of the duller groups of this particular cresting wave. I much prefer my "I woke up one morning" songs to be shitkickin' blues. A nailed-on Ho-Hum from the Nottingham jury.
I agree with you for this song. But i heard some other songs here and liked them! |
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Stingray
(Where JULIAN is supported!) | | Posted: May 16, 2011 - 15:13 | |
When "FF" got bigger around 2008, I was surprised to read all the great critics
they got for their first album. I knew only the "single", but got curious enough to
download the the whole album!
I could not be more surprised! I "hated" it. Any single song. Or didn't I understand
what was considered to be the future of folk-rock? Some said they sound like
C,S,N & Y. Others mentioned the Beach Boys...! Sooooorry...? Beach Boys? Crosby,
Still, Nash & Young...? Really? Had I lost my mind, did I not know any longer what
good music was? Literally "everybody" seemed to understand and like, even LOVE
the Fleet Foxes! I remained stunned and forgot about them!
Their new album came out recently! The "intellectual" cover turned me off immedeately!
But the critics remained so say the same stuff. Great album! Incredible even. And definitely
the future of folk-rock! Sorry...? Whaaaaat? Rock? Rooooock??? Certainly - not anything
has to sound like "Hell's Bells" or "Smoke on the water" to get the rock label, but mentioning
the Fleet Foxes and Rock together in one breath was blasphemy.
Finally I saw a photo of the "new" band, together with their sixth member. What a good laugh
that was! Amazing how they disguised themselves in student-beards, second-hand clothes, self-made
shawls (girlfriend's jobs, I bet or gifts from worshipping fans) and WW-1 boots. It doesn't take
much to surround yourself with old-school Nirvana credibility.
Still - I downloaded the second album too (for free, of course!). All this critics could not be wrong.
I had to be me. Hadn't I hated Björk, Porcupine Tree and Radiohead too - at first, before I grew into
liking, loving and understanding them. The same tactics had to be applied now: Great evening after
an even greater day (perfect mood, in other words), window wide open to inhale German cherry-tree scents,
plus the recreational use of last years window-harvest, something powerful enough to turn "Tea for the
Tillerman" into Nu Speed Goth.
Music started! Immedeately a feeling of weirdness. That was neither rock not folk, that was just...odd.
And boring! Song two, three, four, five, six - nothing changed. I was confident to hear it and ready to
forgive them my pains. Nothing was good for the ears, so far! Nothing! Would they not even be able to
deliver the single one good song that even Costello cannot do without? Not many bands can - the Fleet
Foxes did exactly that on two albums in a row!
No melody (yes-yes)! No guitar! No lead vocal! No rythm! Nothing that remotely smells like Rock, even Folk.
How the hell can a bunch of twenty-something year olds be that boring? How may their concerts sound
and what is the spirit of their gigs? Retired Hippies holding candles? 17 year old Philosophy students
anti-pimped in garage-sale cloths, following the boys throughout the country, loving anything they do? Possibly
more likely a social event than Sex and Drugs and Rock'n'Roll? Or could you imagine to have sex with a
band giving you a completely helplessness blues?
|
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liranzzz
(Bubble gum lab) | | Posted: May 03, 2011 - 07:36 | |
Great! So happy to hear new stuff from this amazing band!  |
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vandal
(arriving somewhere, but not here. . .) | | Posted: Apr 27, 2011 - 22:45 | |
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fredriley
(Nottingham, UK) | | Posted: Apr 19, 2011 - 03:33 | |
More nu-Nu-Folk? We only had The Decembrists a few songs ago. Ah well, a trend's a trend. IMO these are on of the duller groups of this particular cresting wave. I much prefer my "I woke up one morning" songs to be shitkickin' blues. A nailed-on Ho-Hum from the Nottingham jury.
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Sjaaks
(Horst, Netherlands) | | Posted: Apr 19, 2011 - 03:33 | |
It seems as though they managed to keep their own sound, gonna have to listen to the entire album to decide whether that's a good thing or not... But this one sounds excellent!
8
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cohifi
(Denver) | | Posted: Apr 15, 2011 - 23:30 | |
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andrewmi
(capitoltown) | | Posted: Apr 11, 2011 - 10:32 | |
Anyone else hear Happy Jack in here?
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