The recording process of Helplessness Blues was not carefree and breezy as the sound would suggest. Throughout the cultivation of the album, the band toured extensively, and scrapped almost an entire albums worth of material before coming up with these songs. The band, most explicitly vocalist Robin Pecknold, revealed how trying it was for a Fleet Foxes to produce an album as revered as their debut.
The fruits of this arduous process is an incredible album: one of the best of 2011. Helplessness Blues comes together in beatific acoustic sound. For this latest album, all of the essential parts of the Fleet Foxes are present: Acoustic guitars, vocals laced with wistful reverb, gorgeous harmonies, and Americana lyrics. Helplessness Blues, however, is far more intricate than its predecessor. The album is deeper, which allows the songs to unfold into greater depths. While the band holds steadfast to their folky sound, there is much more instrumentation and texture to Helplessness Blues. There is a saxophone solo in "The Shrine, An Argument," chirping flutes in "Grown Ocean," and more complex musical interplay throughout the entire LP. The album also has a slightly darker tone, which adds a more analytical mood to the album, while still keeping it optimistic and unpretentious.
It was a long hard rode for Fleet Foxes to release this album, but the work paid off in brilliance. The band has constructed a folk/indie masterpiece that captures all the mood of American Escapism, without pomp or overbearing grandiosity.
