Album Reviews

Paul Simon can't go back to his folk-rock roots. It's too late for him to turn around, but a younger generation surely can use the hybrid genre as a start-up base of operations. The first and second Fleet Fox albums demonstrate that. 

Paul Simon can't go back to his folk-rock roots. It's too late for him to turn around, but a younger generation surely can use the hybrid genre as a start-up base of operations. The first and second Fleet Fox albums demonstrate that. 

This follow up to the group's debut will seem like an old friend to boomers. It is a beautifully recorded, introspective, sincere effort saturated with soaring, wind-like harmonies, including one, "The Plains/Bitter Dancer" that's as skillfully sung with harmonies as tightly drawn as anything Crosby, Stills and Nash performed on their first two albums and that's saying a great deal. Purposely or accidentally, there are strains of The Hollies, The Zombies, The Beatles and even The Everly Brothers enmeshed in the harmonies.

Clearly the songwriter has an extensive record collection and if you too have one you'll catch glints of your favorites but you're not likely to hear direct quotes. The time keeping elements are kept in the background, which helps sell the soft, ethereal production, but there's sufficient percussive drive to assure strong rhythmic flow.

Much of the music has an Appalachian flavor. The lyrics are introspective, sensitive and often written from a first person perspective. As the album title indicates, many of the songs are about insecurity and being buffeted around by outside sources as well as navigating through life as one matures. One song is about being born to believe one is as individual as a snowflake and yearning to be a cog in a wheel. Talk about a turn around from '60s yearnings!

The six person group's lead vocalist and songwriter Robin Pecknold possesses a high, creamy, angelic voice that co-producer/engineer/mixer Phil Ek bathes in a luxurious reverb (though not as much as on the group's nearly underwater but equally effective debut).  The melodies ebb and flow dream-like, borne on soft, billowy music beds also floating in reverb created with a wide variety of acoustic and vintage synthetic instruments including acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, mandolin, woodwinds, violins, electric bass, hammer dulcimer, harmonium, Moog and Prophet synthesizer. 

Produced over an extended period of time, the album harkens back to the '60s when bands and producers took the recording art more seriously than do many today and if the band didn't invest a great deal of money on this production it's made it seem as if it has. Older listeners will hear strains of S&G's Bookends and even Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Younger ones will be (have been) swept away in the novel, church-like sonic wash.

Don't expect much in the way of mirth or humor, but while these folks take themselves seriously, they are never stern or pretentious. The sound is exceptional, however it was recorded, particularly for this time period. Despite the reverb, the images are stable and solid and of course the airy soundstage is wide and deep. Even the percussive instruments have been skillfully mixed to sparkle out of the dark recesses of the stage.

The double LP smartly spreads the music over two discs and the gatefold packaging has been carefully produced. There's a poster and the black sleeves of heavy stock complete the package.

I read a post on a website discussion of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music. Not that this group has anything musically to do with Ferry or Roxy, but a whining boomer wrote something like "They don't make music like that anymore: classy and thoughtful" or some such complaint. Well, I wish the guy could hear this record. No it's not for folks whose tastes reside exclusively in the hard rock of The Ramones or AC/DC, but if you're a Paul Simon fan and haven't heard Mr. Pecknold's music, what are you waiting for? Highly recommended!