Fleet Foxes: Crack-Up – more interesting, but less enjoyable third album

FLEET FOXESCrack-Up, 3Nonesuch Records

Crack-Up
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Artist: Fleet Foxes
Genre: Alternative
Label: Nonesuch Records

For a while, it seemed like we might never hear a third Fleet Foxes album after frontman Robin Pecknold absconded to Columbia University and busied himself with other musical projects, but the follow-up to 2011's Helplessness Blues sees the Seattle band at something of a crossroads. Crack-Up is an altogether more ponderous record, with lyrics musing on life and a musical blueprint that diverges from what came before. There are altogether fewer singalongs and more incursions into long passages, key changes and progressive time signatures, as heard on Cassius,- and Mearcstapa. In the midst of the experimentation, the band's harmonies and Pecknold's impeccable vocals retain their recognisable style on the gorgeous – Naiads, Cassadies and the dreamlike I Should See Memphis. That concoction makes for an album that's undoubtedly more interesting than their previous fare, but also perhaps less enjoyable. Fleetfoxes.com

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy

Lauren Murphy is a freelance journalist and broadcaster. She writes about music and the arts for The Irish Times