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Tuesday 2 December 2008

Musick's Top 20 Albums: 05



05. Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

Something tells me this isn’t the only album list Fleet Floxes will be appearing in this December. But sometimes an album’s quality is so undeniable – even at Musick, where beards are hugely distrusted - that you have to go with the pack. Fleet Foxes arrived as if from nowhere in 2008 (actually, it was Seattle), fully formed and with little fuss or bluster. So hot was their winning streak that they could afford to dump songs as good as ‘Mykonos’ onto an EP that prefaced their debut album. Not that it mattered, especially with songs as good as ‘White Winter Hymnal’, ‘He Doesn’t Know Why’ and the keening, dramatic ‘Ragged Wood’. Fleet Foxes, the album, is that rare thing; an album that carries with it a knowledge of the musical past (those Beach Boys-esque close harmonies, that autumnal, almost rustic feel), but with an unnerving sense of the present. It’s an album that creates memories, be they imagined or real, of a time spent sat around a campfire with your friends, toasting marshmallows and drinking beer. Whilst other bands tie themselves in knots trying to create genuine emotion and ‘vibe’- hello Arcade Fire – Fleet Foxes manage it first time.

Key track: 'White Winter Hymnal'

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