Fleet Foxes (album)
Encyclopedia
Fleet Foxes is the eponymous debut studio album by the Portland, Oregon
-based band Fleet Foxes
. It was released on June 3, 2008, in the United States
and June 9 in the United Kingdom
. The album debuted at #11 on the UK album charts, eventually peaking at #3, and on June 26, 2008, it debuted in Sweden
at #34, eventually reaching peak position at #16. It was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2008 with reviews averaging four or five stars out of five.
The resulting album was recorded with Ek over the course of a year. As Sub Pop
had yet to get involved with the band at this point, the recording was funded by the group themselves.
, The Guardian
, Uncut
, Pitchfork Media
, MOJO
, and Entertainment Weekly
. The Guardian
described it to be "a landmark in American music, an instant classic". Similar praise was put upon the album by Allmusic, which stated that "Fleet Foxes is such a satisfying, self-assured debut".
Uncut magazine awarded the album their inaugural Uncut Award in 2008 for "the most rewarding album of the past 12 months". Q magazine voted it the second best album of 2008 while it topped The Times
"100 best records of 2008" list. and captured the #3 slot on WERS
Boston's Top 50 of 2008 list. The album was also reviewed on the 'In A Word' section of the weekly podcast: EGGCAST, where it was described as 'cosy' and 'organic'. MOJO
gave the debut the seldom-awarded Instant Classic label. Until Joanna Newsom
's Have One On Me
in the April 2010 issue, it was the last album to receive this honor.
The album had sold over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom by the end of 2008, making it the first gold certificate record released by label Bella Union
. As of February 2009, it has also sold over 211,000 copies in the United States.
is a detail of the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Pecknold notes that:
Pecknold explained to Mojo
how the painting ended up on the front cover:
The cover claimed the Best Art Vinyl
Award 2008, an annual award, organized by Artvinyl.com, a company that manufactures display frames for record albums.
The liner notes do not state which instruments the band members perform. Current drummer J. Tillman
joined the group after recordings had been completed, but prior to the album's release.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
-based band Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes are a folk rock band which formed in Seattle, Washington. They are signed to the Sub Pop and Bella Union record labels. The band came to prominence in 2008 with the release of their second EP, Sun Giant, and their debut full length album Fleet Foxes...
. It was released on June 3, 2008, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and June 9 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The album debuted at #11 on the UK album charts, eventually peaking at #3, and on June 26, 2008, it debuted in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
at #34, eventually reaching peak position at #16. It was one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2008 with reviews averaging four or five stars out of five.
Recording
Producer, and Pecknold family friend, Phil Ek had earlier helped Fleet Foxes record their first demo and used his influence to assist in shopping it to record labels. Ek described the demo as "a very different sound but [...] still very good." According to the producer it was when Robin began writing differently that he thought it was time to do something "for real".The resulting album was recorded with Ek over the course of a year. As Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
had yet to get involved with the band at this point, the recording was funded by the group themselves.
Reception
Several media outlets have given very positive reviews such as Rolling StoneRolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
, Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
, MOJO
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, and Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
described it to be "a landmark in American music, an instant classic". Similar praise was put upon the album by Allmusic, which stated that "Fleet Foxes is such a satisfying, self-assured debut".
Uncut magazine awarded the album their inaugural Uncut Award in 2008 for "the most rewarding album of the past 12 months". Q magazine voted it the second best album of 2008 while it topped The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
"100 best records of 2008" list. and captured the #3 slot on WERS
WERS
In June 2007, WERS inaugurated a translator station on 96.5 MHz in New Bedford, Massachusetts, relaying WERS's programming to New Bedford and nearby communities...
Boston's Top 50 of 2008 list. The album was also reviewed on the 'In A Word' section of the weekly podcast: EGGCAST, where it was described as 'cosy' and 'organic'. MOJO
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
gave the debut the seldom-awarded Instant Classic label. Until Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom
Joanna Newsom is an American harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter from Nevada City, California.- Early life :Newsom grew up in the small town of Nevada City, California...
's Have One On Me
Have One on Me
Have One On Me is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom, released on February 23, 2010 via Drag City as the official follow up to the harpist's highly acclaimed second studio release, 2006's Ys...
in the April 2010 issue, it was the last album to receive this honor.
The album had sold over 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom by the end of 2008, making it the first gold certificate record released by label Bella Union
Bella Union
Bella Union is an independent record label that was started up by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie in 1997.After releasing records with 4AD for a large part of their career, Cocteau Twins decided to take a step towards independence and started up the Bella Union record label, through which they...
. As of February 2009, it has also sold over 211,000 copies in the United States.
Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and... |
U.S. | Best Music of 2008 (Editors' Pick) | 2008 | #3 |
| Drowned in Sound Drowned in Sound DrownedinSound.com or DiS is a UK based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway . The site is an editorially independent music website.-History:... |
UK | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #45 |
| Q Q (magazine) Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology... |
UK | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #2 |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
U.S. | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #11 |
| Spin Spin (magazine) Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard... |
U.S. | 40 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #5 |
| The Times The Times The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International... |
UK | 100 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #1 |
| Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock... |
U.S. | 50 Best Albums of the Year | 2008 | #1 |
| Billboard.com | U.S. | 10 Best Albums of the Year (Critics’ Choice) | 2008 | #1 |
| Paste Paste (magazine) Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:... |
U.S. | Top 50 Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #6 |
| WERS WERS In June 2007, WERS inaugurated a translator station on 96.5 MHz in New Bedford, Massachusetts, relaying WERS's programming to New Bedford and nearby communities... Boston |
U.S. | Top 50 Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #3 |
| Under the Radar Under the Radar (magazine) Under the Radar is an American magazine that bills itself as "The solution to music pollution" and features interviews with accompanying photo-shoots. Each issue includes opinion and commentary of the Indie music scene as well as reviews on books, DVDs and albums.Items are reviewed based on a... |
U.S. | Best of 2008 | 2008 | #1 |
| No Ripcord No Ripcord No Ripcord is an online music and film magazine based in Sheffield, England.-History:The website was originally created in April 1999 by editor-in-chief David Coleman and A.M. Booth... |
UK | Top 50 Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #1 |
| Mojo Mojo (magazine) MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music... |
UK | Top 50 Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #1 |
| Dagbladet Dagbladet Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle.... |
Norway | Top International Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #9 |
| The Know The Know The Know is an Australian talk show on Max. The pop culture show features Yumi Stynes, musician Jimmy Barnes and actress Lisa Hensley as the main show hosts along with former Machine Gun Fellatio keyboardist, Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab. The show discusses and reviews movies, music, television and... |
Australia | Top 10 Albums of 2008 | 2008 | #5 |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
U.S. | 100 Best Albums of the Decade | 2009 | #47 |
| Rhapsody Rhapsody (online music service) Rhapsody is an online music store subscription service, launched in December 2001, and available in the United States only. On April 6, 2010, Rhapsody officially declared its independence from RealNetworks. Downloaded files come with restrictions on their use, enforced by Helix, Rhapsody's version... |
U.S. | 100 Best Albums of the Decade | 2009 | #56 |
| 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd... |
UK | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die | 2009 | - |
Cover art
The cover artCover art
Cover art is the illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book , magazine, comic book, video game , DVD, CD, videotape, or music album. The art has a primarily commercial function, i.e...
is a detail of the 1559 painting Netherlandish Proverbs
Netherlandish Proverbs
Netherlandish Proverbs is a 1559 oil-on-oak-panel painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder which depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish proverbs of the day...
by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Vocalist/guitarist Robin Pecknold notes that:
When you first see that painting it's very bucolic, but when you look closer there's all this really strange stuff going on, like dudes defecating coins into the river and people on fire, people carving a live sheep, this weird dude who looks like a tree root sitting around with a dog. There's all this really weird stuff going on. I liked that the first impression is that it's just pretty, but then you realize that the scene is this weird chaos. I like that you can't really take it for what it is, that your first impression of it is wrong.
Pecknold explained to Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
how the painting ended up on the front cover:
We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do, and my brother had been working out some stuff, when I saw that Bruegel painting in a book my girlfriend had. I liked that it had a really intriguing meaning, like there's a story to each little scene. Which I just felt fitting for that record- dense but unified, not a collage or anything. And I liked its Where's Waldo? quality, that it was something you could look at for a long time on a vinyl sleeve and find new little things.
It was very easy to get the museum in Berlin that has it to say yes. They were super excited a band wanted to use it and put it in their newsletter. When you open it up on the inside there's a paisley pattern traced from the back of a book that Skye (Skjelset, lead guitar)'s mum got me. We wanted two very different feelings.
The cover claimed the Best Art Vinyl
Best Art Vinyl
Best Art Vinyl is an annual award that first began in 2005. It celebrates artists and designers of vinyl record cover art. The nomination process begins in November and the winners are announced in January, and are exhibited at venues across the United Kingdom and Europe, including the O2, Rough...
Award 2008, an annual award, organized by Artvinyl.com, a company that manufactures display frames for record albums.
Disc one
Disc two (special edition)
Disc two (deluxe edition)
Personnel
- Robin PecknoldRobin PecknoldRobin Noel Pecknold is an American singer, guitarist and principal songwriter for the band Fleet Foxes.-Biography:He formed Fleet Foxes with guitarist and friend Skyler Skjelset while the two were at school...
: band member, songwriter, arranger, design [uncredited: lead vocals, guitar] - Skyler Skjelset: band member, arranger [uncredited: lead guitar]
- Nicholas Peterson: band member, arranger [uncredited: drums, percussion, vocals]
- Casey Wescott: band member, arranger [uncredited: keyboards, vocals]
- Craig Curran: band member, arranger [uncredited: bass, vocals]
- Gwen Owen: flute on "Your Protector"
- Phil EkPhil EkPhil Ek is an American record producer, engineer and mixer. Ek began his career in Seattle, Washington, in the early 1990s recording live sound in clubs. He then moved into studio recording, recording small projects and demos for local bands. Around this time, Ek was frequently working with...
: producer, engineer, mixer - Ed Brooks: mastering
- Sasha Barr: Design
- Dusty Summers: Design
The liner notes do not state which instruments the band members perform. Current drummer J. Tillman
J. Tillman
Joshua Tillman is an American folk singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is also the current drummer for the Seattle-based band Fleet Foxes...
joined the group after recordings had been completed, but prior to the album's release.