“He Doesn’t Know Why“
from the album Fleet Foxes
2008
iTunes
Brandishing the delicate, wood-smoked harmonies of Crosby, Stills & Nash and rustic reverbed vision of My Morning Jacket’s Tennessee Fire, the debut LP from Seattle’s Fleet Foxes opens on a brief a cappella hymn, an enchanting displacement that melts into the dazzling psychedelic folk strum of “Sun It Rises.” The quintet’s romantic idylls burst bright and soft, wandering reverent with touches of ancient folk ballads on “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and “Your Protector” that cast against the pop glow of “He Doesn’t Know Why.“ “Ragged Wood” races alongside Band of Horses, while “White Winter Hymnal” laces a Shins-ian hum into the vocals. A number of contemporary indie bands attempt to strip-mine mountain ballads in the service of indie pop, but none has melded the impulses as effortlessly and captivatingly as Fleet Foxes manage on “Blue Ridge Mountains” and “Oliver James.” Sublime.