Fleet Foxes @ Hammersmith Apollo – Gig Review


Fleet Foxes are currently on the UK leg of their tour to promote their second album, ‘Helplessness Blues‘, and I was lucky enough to see them at Hammersmith Apollo last night. If you’re not familiar with them, Fleet Foxes are a six-piece folk band from Portland Oregon who have a signature style of close harmonies set over quite plaintive melodies. Oddly, they’re rather more popular in Europe than they are in the US, with their debut album Fleet Foxes garnering Uncut’s music award in 2008 and resulting in sell-out tours in the UK and Australia (and which I attended).

While they performed a whole slew of older material last night, the focus was on the new songs from ‘Helplessness Blues’. Clearly they have confidence in their style and execution because not much has been changed, although I don’t feel that this new stuff is quite as catchy as their first outing. I’m not alone in thinking that either – the audience last night definitely reacted more positively to tunes from the first album. That being said, the title track ‘Helplessness Blues’ is very catchy, as are ‘Lorelai’ and ‘Someone You’d Admire’ which strike me as being rather darker and deeper than we’ve heard before under those light guitar strings and the gentle voice of lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold. Fleet Foxes certainly aren’t for everyone – if your tastes are particularly commercial then  you’re going to struggle to get your head around their particular brand of folk music, although for me it’s a regular visitor to my music queue.

About Pete Stean

Pete Stean is a London-based writer and photographer. He can also be found on Twitter and on Google Plus.

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