Helplessness Blues
by Fleet Foxes

From HoldenM TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/03/2013 04:07 | #66815 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I'm not gonna lie; I like this a lot more than Fleet Foxes. It's a little more difficult, and maybe there aren't as many standout tracks, but it's actually an album. It's focused, there are central ideas, it's constructed as a whole, but can be appreciated for its pieces. To me, it seems like Helplessness Blues is going to go down as one of the greatest albums of all time, because this is a fully realized, ambitious masterpiece that is not just a great folk album, but an unmistakably potent artistic statement that is so rare to be found these days.

From buzzdainer TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/05/2017 19:00 | #184966 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique / Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see / And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be / A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me." So begins this album's fantastic title track, a song that may sum up the peculiar situation of the millenial generation. I'm not a millenial, but to a degree I think we can all identify with that final sentiment: that our culture rewards individual achievement when what really delivers meaningful happiness is a sense that we're part of something larger than ourselves. I've never seen Fleet Foxes live, and I'm not sure if I ever will with the band on indefinite hiatus, but I'd like to sing that song at the top of my lungs in a room full of people.

Helplessness Blues is the best "Folk" related album I have ever heard. This album touches me on an extremely emotional level with it's amazing instrumentation and very personal lyrics about trying to find your place in the world. In my opinion Helplessness Blues is a significant improvement on their debut which is still a very good project, this album brings in a lot more instrumentation, certainly has better lyrics and just feels like a more cohesive and ambitious project. Robin Pecknold & co have put their soul into making this record and you can hear it in the music. I love every single track on this album and that is extremely rare for me . One of my favorite albums of all time.

After listening to it the first few times, I enjoyed it and the standout tracks were Sim sala bim, and helplessness blues. After a week or so, some of the tracks grow on you so much - they have a nack of making you want to listen to each track over and over again!
So after around 5 months of listening to it everyday, my favorite tracks are probably The plains/bitter dancer, montezuma, and battery Kinzie - the latter the most pop-friendly on the album. I usually pride myself on alternative music, but that track is so so catchy. Crucially, the two main difference between Helplessness Blues and their first album, are a.) he has let go of the abstract lame lyrics and b.) they have let go of their obsession with Trad English folk, and embraced Americana and their own heritage - to remarkable affect.

There is a lot of beautiful moments on this record but the album on the whole drags on a little too long. This record does have some amazing songs in the form of Helplessness Blues, Montezuma and Battery Kinzie. All of these stick to the folk style they are going for and they work very well. They have done a great job in making this modern folk sound that really suits their vocalist and the instrumentation is of a high quality as well. The acoustic guitar being a stand out for me especially on songs like Blue Spotted Tail. However, the album is to drawn out and it does get very repetitive by the closing track. There are quite a few cuts I find to be unnecessary as well that could be removed. Overall, the record is amazing in spells but is let down by the filler and the bloated nature of the release. (Edited)