Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues

Review Score:

A+

The Unprecedented Times –

August 2 / 2023

Helplessness Blues begins with a question. 

“So now I am older/Than my mother and father

When they had their daughter/What does that say about me?”

Perhaps I just happened to delve into this album at a key time in my life. Many of the lyrical themes beg the same sorts of questions a twenty-something would ask. And though the album is just a little more than ten years young, these questions will always ring true for someone, somewhere. Fleet Foxes’ second album is dreamy, acoustic, masterful folk. The rustic instrumentation and the thoughtful, poetic writing battle for supremacy across a dozen seamless tracks. 

It is clear that Robin Pecknold and his bandmates poured heart and soul into this project. Pecknold’s romantic life crumbled as a result of his obsession with achieving perfection on Helplessness Blues. This quest for greatness reflects the same quest that nearly tore the Beach Boys apart during the creation of Pet Sounds. And while the Beach Boys can be given some credit for influencing Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues is really built off the back of the band’s previous album in the best way possible. 

This is an incredibly ambitious project. The songwriting is so poignant and reflects the lyrical toiling Pecknold underwent to create these beautiful, poetic songs. The pacing of the album, something that goes overlooked in some projects, is perfect. “Helplessness Blues” is the existential centerpiece, but the album has so much left to give from then on out. Perhaps the most striking moment occurs near the end of “The Shrine / An Argument”, when the song erupts into a jazz breakdown for the final minute of the song. It’s cathartic and it’s intense and it’s stunning. The transition into the understated and thoughtful “Blue Spotted Tail” lets the listener breathe again. “Grown Ocean” is a lovely, cinematic, evocative closer that goes out quietly rather than bombastically. 

They say that you should reread Catcher in the Rye every 5-10 years, because the meaning changes as you age and grow. I have a feeling that will be true of Helplessness Blues as well. Maybe I just found it at the right time. But despite countless listens, I will never take for granted the beauty of Helplessness Blues.

Review Score:

A+

Gubb wrote this review. You can’t get mad at Gubb.