Fleet Foxes’ creative leaders Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset have always acknowledged their love of proto-prog works such as The Beach Boys’ Smile or Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, but their ambitions towards a similarly ambitious patchwork quilt of songs weren’t fully revealed until 2017’s third album, Crack-Up.
The opening track (intimidatingly titled I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar) seems to make a clear statement: ‘Our days of easily digestible folky paeans are behind us. Goodbye chamber pop, hello folk prog.’ Midway through typically harmony-drenched, richly melodic swells, they cut abruptly to softly plucked guitar and a vocal is whispered under Pecknold’s breath, as if he were recording introspective song ideas into a Dictaphone.
