Folk heroes' success is more than fleeting
WHILE the likes of Vampire Weekend and MGMT were deservedly attracting plaudits last year, there was another band who eclipsed them in the newcomer stakes.
Since its release last year, Fleet Foxes' eponymous debut album has sold more than 350,000 copies in the UK and received a ream of glowing reviews.
Not since Arcade Fire's brilliant polyphonic masterpiece Funeral came out in 2004 has a band caused such a flurry of interest.
What is particularly interesting is they've done it by going against the grain.
Their blend of folk, rock and pop is characterised by seemingly effortless vocal harmonies, and about as far removed from the likes of the Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon as you can get.
Earlier this year they played a three-night residency to packed audiences at London's Roundhouse, proving they were more than just the critics' favourites.
Tonight Fleet Foxes make their debut at Glastonbury before heading north for a sell-out gig at Leeds Academy on Sunday, the latest leg of a short UK tour.
It's been a fairytale rise for Seattle's greatest musical export since a certain Kurt Cobain helped redefine the boundaries of rock music 20 years ago. But while Fleet Foxes hail from the city that gave us grunge, their spiritual home is California – although more Laurel Canyon and the Sierra mountains than the neon scream of Sunset Boulevard.
The band is built around singer Robin Pecknold and lead guitarist Skyler Skjelset, who met at school and bonded over their love of music and their shared Norwegian heritage.
Initially they called themselves Pineapples, and later they were joined by Casey Wescott on keyboards, bassist and vocalist Christian Wargo, and Josh Tillman on drums and Fleet Foxes were born.
They quickly established a loyal following in their hometown and received more than 250,000 plays on MySpace before their first EP, Sun Giant, was even released.
The band describe their music as "baroque pop jams" while their soaring harmonies have drawn frequent comparisons with Crosby, Stills and Nash and The Beach Boys.
Although you could add any number of other artists to the mix – from Neil Young and The Byrds, to Midlake and Animal Collective – such is their wide embrace of musical styles.
There are some obvious musical touchstones, though, such as the late '60s west coast sound of bands like Love. But there's also an oldermusical heritage that Pecknold and co tap into.
The quintet's mournful, yet stunning melodies have a pastoral, other-worldly feel to them.
From Sun It Rises, sung for the most part a capella with bell-like clarity, and the death-haunted Your Protector, to the irresistible Mykonos, which evokes the evergreen sound of The Mamas and Papas, Fleet Foxes create a sound that is both sepulchral and luminous, and ancient yet modern.
The cover artwork is equally intriguing.
Many fledgling bands won't have even have heard of the artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder, never mind taken one of his 16th-century peasant landscapes and using it for their album cover.
But then the Fleet Foxes don't strike you as a band bothered by trends, looking as they do like Fairport Convention's love children and possessing the kind of facial hair that Nordic fisherman would
be proud of.
Ultimately, though, the quintet's success boils down to the music, and their debut album is already being hailed as a landmark record, not only in American music, but modern rock and pop, too.
Their songs regale tales of bygone loves and the cold hand of fate and by blending folk traditions with hymns, baroque pop and gospel, they have created a uniquely beautiful sound that owes as much to their own musical vision as it does to their record collections.
Hopefully this is just the beginning for a band who are surely destined to become much more than a whisper in the ear of greatness.
Fleet Foxes play Leeds Academy on Sunday.
FLEET FOXES FACTFILE
Line-up: Robin Pecknold (singer and guitarist), Skyler Skjelset (lead guitarist), Casey Wescott (keyboards, vocals), Christian Wargo (bass, guitar, vocals) and Josh Tillman (drums, vocals)
Where are they from?: Seattle, United States
Influenced by: Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, Bill Withers, Elliott
Smith and Joanna Newsom
Recommended songs: Sun It Rises, White Winter Hymnal, Mykonos, He Doesn't Know Why.
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