Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues / Grown Ocean
http://www.discogs.com/Fleet-Foxes-Helplessness-BluesGrown-Ocean/release/2829393
This is a two track 12" released for Record Store Day 2011. I think I grabbed this one at Treeshouse Records, a really cool shop in Minneapolis if your in the MN metro area.
Kitty! Get out of there, sorry. The packaging on this 12" is pretty standard. Black and white artwork depicting a snow covered mountain. The vinyl is pressed at 45 rpm and the sound quality is excellent. I do like the presentation, I do not like the content. Side A features the track Helplessness Blues, the title track from their latest album. The song is OK, not bad.
My issue with Fleet Foxes is one of "sameness." Robin Pecknolds vocals bore the absolute shit out of me. Absent the harmonies, we are left with a consistently dreamy almost detached vocal styling. While I do enjoy the musicianship on both of the Fleet Foxes albums, the lack of variety in vocals prevents them from being stand out albums. Their sophomore effort, Helplessness Blues, begins to stray at times from this problem, but it is still present.
I like music that covers a wide range of emotion. While Robin's lyrics express everything from happiness to sorrow, the vocals he uses to present them do not. There is a contradiction in emotion that hurts the product as a whole.
Side AA features the cut Grown Ocean. It begins with more of Robin's dreamy "ooh wee ooh ooh" bullshit. I kind of hate this track. Not that it is a bad song, I just personally do not like it. That's not even it, I just can not handle these fucking vocals. Someone contact him and let him know to switch it up a little bit. There are a couple of tracks on Helplessness Blues where I can hear him begin to escape his self imposed vocal prison, so I will not give up hope that their next release will be an improvement.
Welp, time for me to manage some record store employees. Hopefully nobody is too hungover or high to do their honest day's work. I spent most of yesterday sifting through a bunch of shit 99 cent records, If I could never see another copy of Genesis - Self Titled or Frampton Comes Alive I would be a happy man. I had to (gasp) throw away a number of records; we do not have the room. I tried to sell them dirt cheap (two bucks for 200 records) but no one was biting. I would have given them a home, but I already have half a garage full of shitty records. I couldn't even give them away, I guess no one like free records? As it stands I saved a couple by creating collection starting crate deals (a crate full of records for $15 or $20, crate included), I'm sure someone will find that appealing.
Lastly, I'll post a link to my incomplete listing of my collection on discogs. I got through a good portion of my collection, but lost motivation when I found that I had more than a hundred records that would need a listing created. In the future, I'll compile a simple spreadsheet with catalog numbers.
www.discogs.com/user/carpspirit
If you see something you want reviewed, leave a comment hear or on the reddit post, thanks again for reading everyone. I'm still going strong, the motivation has not left me and I do intend to review every records in my collection.
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