Fleet Foxworthy

Take a look at that image.  Uppity size that.  

That's the cover for the debut Fleet Foxes LP just released on Sub Pop.  I've had this album for a few months at this point, and I've recommended it to some of you.  I think its friggin' fantastic and its only competition for best album of 2008 so far is Portishead's new one.  

Sup Pop released it on Vinyl and included the band's EP Sun Giant with the LP.  Also included was a link to download the mp3s of both the LP and the EP.  You know when people say What Would Jesus Do?  I think if the guy were around these days, the first thing he'd do is release all vinyls with high quality mp3 download codes.  I'm pretty sure he said it once in the Bible.  

So as I stated, I've had this album for a few months.  Apparently it was recorded quite a while ago (the EP was actually released first, but recorded second), and naturally it was leaked.  I don't know what it is that I found so charming about music that paints a picture of Ye Olde Frontier, but its got me hook, line, and sinker.  Fucking guys fixing leaks in houses, tending to the land, wearing hats and beards, etc.  Prime example of this is Midlake's "Roscoe," which was my song of the year last year by a landslide.  Fleet Foxes' LP is the musically superior cousin of Midlake's "Trials of Van Occupanther," though I wouldn't say any one song is better than Roscoe.  Thanks to Sub Pop for releasing this album on Vinyl, because after listening to mp3s for months, I was ready to have the album reborn in my grado's with vinyl pops.  And this album screams to be enhanced by the scratching and popping of a needle.  And that album cover!  Big and blown up on the cover of the gatefold!  Give me one tab of acid, this album, and its vinyl gatefold, and I'll see you at the yard.  I'd come out looking like this guy.

There have been enough blog posts out there about how fantastic "White Winter Hymnal" is so I'll just say this and move on:  Its the best song under 3 minutes I've ever heard.  

It didn't surprise me to learn that seasoned producer Phil Ek (of Built to Spill and Shins fame, to name a few) was involved in mixing this album, in particular "He Doesn't Know Why," which challenged me to focus on that piano backing track, and when I finally did, the song hit like a ton of bricks.  THAT is how you mix music.  Make me work for it.  

I mentioned before Portishead's new LP.  At first it was only available as a CD and as a stupid giant box set vinyl, but they came to their senses and released just the single LP a bit later (which did the Christian thing and included mp3s).  

I really like to listen to these two albums one after another, because its like drifting off to sleep after a hard day's work of tending to the livestock and prospecting my land, and then plummeting down into a smelly, steamy, metal factory made up of nothing but massive turning gears which grind and crush my bones to powder when I fall into them.