Yahoo! Music Review

Released on 26/01/09
Label: Bella Union

With the amount of gloom filling the air and airwaves - that'll be the weather, the economy, the lack of security and the complete and utter mind-numbing tedium that is January - the need for something bright and vaguely cheery has taken on quite Herculean proportions. Step forward Seattle baroque pop harmonisers Fleet Foxes.

Last year's eponymous debut proved to be one the more arresting new records of 2008; a miasma of harmonies and sheer, unrestrained joy, the quartet harked back to a time of simpler, unfettered pleasures. Of course, anyone already familiar with their rise will already be acquainted with "Mykanos" what with it having already appeared on the splendid "Sun Giant" EP.

This is the sound of optimism in a time of extreme pessimism, a ray of light in otherwise endless and perpetual night. The blending of five voices into one is delivered with such conviction as to be truly infectious and it's hard not to register a flicker of recognition when frontman Robin Pecknold sings "And you will go to Mykanos / With a vision of a gentle coast / And a sun to maybe dissipate / Shadows of the mess you made". Rarely does music get as gorgeous as this.

    by Julian Marszalek