Known for their majestic four-piece harmonies and folk wistfulness, Fleet Foxes is an indie rock darling in my group of friends. They are a band that has orbited around the sun of commercial success while never quite finding their way onto the surface, but that hasn’t kept them from weaving their way into my life since their 2011 sophomore album Helplessness Blues first dropped. It was an audiophile dream, filled with reverb and gorgeous melodies that felt like they had the ability to transport you into another time and place somewhere in the Santa Cruz mountains amidst a sea of fog and redwood trees that stretch a mile high, disappearing into the atmosphere.
2020’s Shore is much of the same, a blissful experience that reminds you just how gorgeous music can sound when a collection of individuals open their mouths and sing in unison. Recorded before and during the COVID pandemic, Shore is actually the first (and only) Fleet Foxes album to essentially be a solo album from frontman and principal songwriter Robin Pecknold– no other band members played on the album due to quarantine, with various session players and other artists (including Grizzly Bear drummer Christopher Bear). Pecknold calls it a “celebration of life in the face of death” and it certainly sounds the part, from the wonderfully serene “Sunblind” which pays tribute to all of his musical heroes who have passed away to the manifesto of “Can I Believe You” which, by my interpretation, is about taking off the mask we put on every day to be honest with those you love as well as yourself.
Shore is gorgeous and thematic and intimate in a way that only Fleet Foxes can accomplish, a subtle reminder of the fragility of life, and a call to celebrate every single day we’re on this Earth through all of the ups and downs.
Standout Songs: “Can I Believe You”, “Sunblind”, “Featherweight”
