Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Having sauntered to a top three position in the UK album charts, garnering a plethora of plaudits and sold-out shows along the way, Seattle’s Fleet Foxes seemingly hit a perfect balance between artistic integrity and commercial success with their eponymous 2008 debut. It’s no surprise then that expectations of Helplessness Blues are high. They’re largely met from the albums first offering, Montezuma, immediately making its mark with the sextet’s trademark interwoven harmonies drifting over an intricate instrumental tapestry.

It’s a sound which permeates throughout the album, at times capturing the clichés of winter woodlands and campfires, at others delving far deeper, as found on the stunning Battery Kinzie. Whether Fleet Foxes represent the best of folk music’s renaissance is arguable, but they’ve unquestionably returned the genre to the masses. It’s hard to imagine that the gentle beauty of Helplessness Blues will do anything but spread that message further. [Paul Neeson]