Day 0980 - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes" (2008) - got it

I first heard Fleet Foxes probably over a decade ago.  The video for their song "Mykonos" got plenty of play late at night on our local music channel when I'd be watching TV after my evening/night shifts.   For some reason (possibly shift-related grumpiness) at the time I wanted to dislike it, but it stuck with me.   It stuck with me to the point that years later, out of the blue I found myself youtubing some of their songs and then picking up their debut album (with bonus "Sun God" EP) on vinyl.

The band were eventually signed to Sub-Pop (a label previously much more associated with the Seattle grunge movement) but not before they'd had to scrape together the money to make recordings themselves, with sessions taking places in houses/apartments of the band and their producer.

The album opens with glorious a cappella vocal harmonies on "White Winter Hymnal". Vocal harmonies go on to a recurrent feature throughout the album.  The band has a lovely lush, yet organic sound, largely built from acoustic instruments and the aforementioned vocals.   Their sound mixes indie-pop with folk, often an almost pastoral 'ye olde' folk.

The lush sound gets pared back on songs like "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" and "Oliver James" which offer Robin Peckold's high, clear voice time to really shine. His voice gives songs "He Doesn't Know Why" and "Your Protector" a sound that could be (not unfavourably) compared to the Shins.

It's an impressive debut, somehow feeling simultaneously old, contemporary and timeless all at once.

Day 0727 - Little Earthquakes

Tori Amos "Little Earthquakes" (1992) - got it

Tori had been making music from a young age and circulated some demos with help from her father.  These demos eventually resulted in her being signed to release the synth-pop album "Y Cant Tori Read" under a band of the same name.

That band broke up and Tori submitted further demos that would eventually become "Little Earthquakes".

This album to my ears is the bridge from Kate Bush to Regina Spektor.  Moving between beauty and high theatre of "China" to the harsh simplicity of the acapella "Me and a gun" (recounting a sexual assault that Tori experienced).

The album is very piano heavy but with occasional bursts of loud guitar, or tasteful strings, as in personal favourite, the cabaret-esque "Leather".

Another one where my wife owns a copy so I unwittingly technically own it to (lucky me 😎)

Day 0708 - Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement "Slanted and Enchanted" (1992)

Originally started as a studio-only project, Pavenement released a number of lo-fi releases.   They eventually recruited a drummer for more recordings and even some live shows.

The band certainly weren't courting fame and success, with the original version of this album being circulated on cassette with no song titles listed.   The music created some buzz and eventually the full version of the album was released.

It has kind of a Velvet Underground vibe with vocalist Stephen Malkmus' drawling vocals.  The music is vaguely melodic with lots of noisy guitar; so not unlike more than a few other bands active at the time.   It didn't really grab me.  It's perfectly listenable, but not something I'm likely to revisit or investigate further.