Fleet Foxes bleiben einzigartig
Sechs Jahre nach ihrem letzten Album »Helplessness Blues« veröffentlichen Fleet Foxes 2017 ein neues Album, ihr mittlerweile drittes. Auf »Crack-Up« macht das Quintett aus Seattle seinem persönlichen Genre »baroque harmonic pop jams« wieder einmal alle Ehre.
Und so liegt auch das neue Werk irgendwo zwischen psychedelischem Retropop der 1960er- und 1970er-Jahre, Folk und Indierock.
Wie das klingt, verrieten Fleet Foxes bereits im März mit der ersten Singleauskopplung von »Crack-Up«. In dem fast neunminütigen »Third Of May/Odaigahara« glänzt die Band mit Piano, elektrischer 12-saitiger Gitarre, Streichquartett und der gewohnt harmonisch-warmen Stimme von Sänger Robin Pecknold.
Insgesamt warten elf neue Songs auf »Crack-Up«, an dem zum ersten Mal auch der neue Schlagzeuger Morgan Henderson mitwirkte. Er stieß 2012 zur Band und ersetzt Joshua Tillman, der auch als Father John Misty bekannt ist.
Aufgenommen wurde das neue Album an verschiedenen Orten in den USA, darunter die Electric Lady Studios, Sear Sound, The Void, Rare Book Room, Avast und The Unknown. Gemixt wurde »Crack-Up« von Phil Ek (The Shins, Band of Horses, Mudhoney). Für das Mastering zeichnete Greg Calbi (Sterling Sound) verantwortlich.
Lange haben ihre Fans auf diesen Moment gewartet: Mit ihrem neuen Album »Crack-Up« bleiben sich Fleet Foxes treu und stellen 2017 einmal mehr ihre Einzigartigkeit unter Beweis.
Die Band aus Seattle wird dem Anspruch ›baroque harmonic pop jams‹ grandios gerecht.
(Audio, Juli 2017)
Following a lengthy hiatus and some apparent soul-searching from bandleader Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes aim for dramatic reinvention on their cerebral third LP, Crack-Up. When they debuted in 2008, they were widely designated as torchbearers of the burgeoning indie folk movement, but there was always an academic element to the Seattle band's work that vaulted them into a class of their own. Their exultant vocal harmonies rose like a misty hybrid of the Beach Boys and Steeleye Span and their complex chamber pop arrangements recalled the autumnal splendor of the Zombies paired with the melodic complexity of early Yes. On the band's long-awaited third effort, it's the latter of those two references that jumps to the fore as they deliver what is easily their most progressive album to date. Named for an essay by F. Scott Fitzgerald and bearing references to Spanish painter Francisco Goya, the American Civil War, sociopolitical anxiety, and inner-band strife, Crack-Up is dense and difficult, but ultimately rewarding. At the album's vanguard is "I Am All That I Need/Arroyo Seco/Thumbprint Scar," an ambitious three-part suite in which the familiar strains of Fleet Foxes' trademark wall of harmonies become suddenly hijacked by crudely mumbled interludes and various forms of rhythmic and tonal dissonance. It's a method employed throughout Crack-Up's 11 tracks, which seem to zig and zag through zones of chaos, fellowship, and transcendence as Pecknold the scholar unveils his strange architecture in layers of detail and nuance. That the nearly nine-minute centerpiece, "Third of May/Odaigahara," was chosen as the album's lead single says something about the availability of easily digestible material on Crack-Up, and yet its aspirations are the glue that holds it all together. Orchestral, experimental, and more challenging than either of the band's previous releases, it's a natural fit for the Nonesuch label, whose heritage was built on such attributes. For Fleet Foxes, it represents a shift away from their more idyllic early days into a period of artistic growth and sophistication.
(by Timothy Monger, All Music Guide)