Fleet Foxes — 2008

Background

Fleet Foxes' self-titled debut was released in 2008, built around richly layered vocal harmonies drawing explicitly on folk and choral traditions, paired with pastoral, nature-imagery-laden lyrics that gave the record an unhurried, almost timeless quality distinct from much contemporary indie rock.

Sound

'White Winter Hymnal' opens the album with a round-like, interlocking vocal harmony arrangement that became the record's most immediately recognisable moment, its structure owing as much to choral and folk tradition as to conventional indie rock songwriting. 'Ragged Wood' and 'He Doesn't Know Why' both showcase the band's gift for dense, multi-part vocal harmony paired with warm, largely acoustic instrumentation.

Pastoral aesthetic

The album's lyrics and overall aesthetic draw heavily on pastoral, natural imagery — mountains, rivers, seasons — giving the record a deliberately timeless, almost mythic quality that stood apart from the more urban, ironic sensibilities common in much of the indie rock surrounding its release.

Legacy

Fleet Foxes is widely regarded as one of the most significant indie folk albums of the late 2000s, its richly harmonised vocal arrangements and pastoral aesthetic having directly influenced a substantial wave of subsequent folk-influenced indie bands. It remains the album most closely associated with launching the wider 2000s and early 2010s indie folk revival alongside Bon Iver's contemporaneous debut.