#10
Fleet Foxes | Crack-Up
Nonesuch | Official Store | Amazon | iTunes
According to Justin Chadwick: “Thankfully—though not surprisingly considering the band’s proven track record of perfectionism and propensity for experimentation in the studio—Crack-Up finds Fleet Foxes’ ambitious streak fully intact and their songs as immersive and intricately conceived as ever. Loosely inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald’s essay The Crack-Up, but also seemingly a soliloquy on the fractured and volatile state of things in the U.S. of A and beyond, Crack-Up’s eleven songs find Robin Pecknold tussling with internal conflicts of identity set against elaborate, sweeping arrangements that defy conventional structures.
Crack-Up is a brave, bold document by a band devoted to stretching their artistic vision into new realms, making music that is not engineered to placate their fans and impress critics, but rather to validate their own passion for the art of songcraft. It’s Fleet Foxes’ most imaginative statement yet, replete with the hallmark signs of the band's blood, sweat and tears being infused throughout the recording process, which must have proven exhausting yet gratifying at the same time….Though the merits of Crack-Up will most certainly prove divisive among Fleet Foxes’ devoted followers and music pundits alike, at least to these ears, angst, alienation and ambivalence have never sounded as sublime and soul-affirming as they do on their triumphant third.”
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