Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes’ self-titled 2008 debut was recorded mostly in domestic spaces — Pecknold’s parents’ basement and Wescott’s home — due to tight funds; it aimed for simplicity through harmonies and unconventional structures, underwent full re-recording and exhaustive revision, and was produced by Phil Ek with vocals added the night before final mixing. Its pastoral acoustic sound foregrounds vocal arrangements modelled on classical string textures, informed by folk, gospel, psychedelic pop and Sacred Harp styles, with lyrics rooted in Pecknold’s rural surroundings, philosophical reflection and personal abandonment — not love songs.