Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues [2× Vinyl LP]

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues [2× Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: 2× Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Gatefold, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: 0075597936070 / 560441-1
• Barcode: 075597936070
• Genre: Indie Folk / Chamber Pop / Folk Rock
• Label: Nonesuch Records / Warner Music
• Originally Released: 3 May 2011
• Reissue Released: 1st September 2017
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Helplessness Blues is Fleet Foxes' second studio album and one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed records of the 2010s. Originally released on 3 May 2011 via Sub Pop and Bella Union, it built magnificently on the promise of their acclaimed 2008 debut — expanding the sonic palette, deepening the lyrical complexity and delivering twelve tracks of extraordinary beauty that earned unanimous critical praise and a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album at the 54th ceremony.

Recorded over the course of a year at Avast Recording, Bear Creek Studios, Dreamland Studios and Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, the album was produced and mixed by Phil Ek in close collaboration with the band. Where the debut had been rooted in Appalachian folk and classic Americana, Helplessness Blues drew its inspiration from a broader and more adventurous range of sources — British psychedelic folk from the late 1960s and early 1970s, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, Crosby Stills Nash & Young — and expanded the band's instrumentation accordingly: clarinet, music box, pedal steel guitar, lap steel guitar, Tibetan singing bowls, vibraphone, hammer dulcimer and lever harp all appear across the record.

The result is an album of layered, intricate beauty — meticulous in its construction yet somehow feeling completely spontaneous and alive. Robin Pecknold's writing had taken a significant leap: the themes of identity, longing and the gap between aspiration and reality run through the album with a lyrical clarity and emotional intelligence that struck a deep chord with listeners worldwide. The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 — the band's highest chart position — and reached number seven in the UK.

Opening track "Montezuma" sets the tone with its breathtaking four-part vocal harmony and aching self-interrogation. "Battery Kinzie" brings a welcome burst of energy and rhythmic urgency. "Helplessness Blues" is the album's emotional centrepiece — Pecknold's most direct and personal lyric, quietly devastating in its honesty. "The Shrine / An Argument" is the album's most ambitious piece, building from delicate acoustic picking through an extraordinary free jazz breakdown before resolving into a tender, hymn-like close. And "Grown Ocean" ends the record on a note of luminous, hard-won optimism that feels genuinely transcendent.

This 2023 Nonesuch Records reissue is the definitive modern pressing of one of the great albums of its era.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Montezuma
2. Bedouin Dress
3. Sim Sala Bim
4. Battery Kinzie

Side B

1. The Plains / Bitter Dancer
2. Helplessness Blues
3. The Cascades

Side C

1. Lorelai
2. Someone You'd Admire
3. The Shrine / An Argument

Side D

1. Blue Spotted Tail
2. Grown Ocean

Credits

• Robin Pecknold – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Piano, Fiddle, Mandolin, Hammer Dulcimer, Harmonium, Moog, Lever Harp
• Skyler Skjelset – Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Banjo
• Christian Wargo – Bass, Vocals, Guitar
• Casey Wescott – Keyboards, Synthesiser, Vocals
• Josh Tillman – Drums, Vocals
• Morgan Henderson – Bass Clarinet, Flute, Upright Bass, Percussion
• Phil Ek – Producer, Recording, Mixing
• Label – Nonesuch Records