First listen – “it just sounds like one long Fleet Foxes slow section”. Fourth listen – “Yeah, this sounds unfinished”. But what about now? After however many listens I’ve given it?
It’s me, the hardest working man in text-based weekend album reviews, back with another bombtrack… If you’re not currently reading my ‘Queen, Live at the Rainbow’ review, is because you have more sense than most people, but fear not, because relevancy cometh, Fleet Foxes are back, and since I gave a little update to my feelings on the album just the other day, I’ve given ‘Crack-Up’ a few more listens, and while I have some optimism, I don’t think a whole lot has really changed.
I don’t dislike ‘Crack-Up’, but it’s hard to say I’m feeling it. As soon as the foreboding, “let’s start off quiet and then suddenly get craftily loud” opening track (a three-in-one of sorts) rears its head, I know that this isn’t really a project I’m going to be getting sucked into, and that’s a shame because I’m a really big fan of the band’s previous work. Their self-titled is heartfelt and clinical, and 2011’s ‘Helplessness Blues’ is a such a modern folk triumph that people don’t even really care about its predecessor that much anymore.
‘Helplessness Blues’ had what I consider to be a carefully crafted batch of songs and haunted, spiritual, slow-burner moments, though they were fairly scattered and irregular. I wish wish wish ‘Crack-Up’ had more of the former, the beautiful, illustrious, memorable tunes that floated above the atmospheric arrangements. It still has the atmospheric arrangements, but not much else, except for intelligence/maturity and some decent lyrical stories.
As for individual songs, I don’t have that much to say, partly because there is a lack of individuality here. However, I will show my appreciation for ‘Third of May’ and ‘Fool’s Errand’, and I also quite like ‘I Should See Memphis’, its strings remind me of Arcade Fire’s more sentimental moments, and now I’ve just reminded myself that the new Arcade Fire is going to suck, isn’t it?
Another positive, ‘Crack-Up’ really does give the genre title ‘progressive folk’ a whole new meaning. The attention given to long-winded song structures and music’s underappreciated technicalities and dynamics is pretty wondrous. I ragged on the Fleet Foxes cliché of playing soft THEN LOUD then soft THEN LOUD (it is well-mixed, so it’s not like you have to keep turning your volume up and down), but it’s well done for the most part, as is their ability to keep things moving at a steady pace before getting fairly hectic. That’s where the power lies, because I’m really not digging the production as a whole, it’s fine, but mistier than Father John.
I think the end-of-year lists will be all over ‘Crack-Up’, but my indifference hasn’t allowed me to see it in that light. Part of me is fully aware of the album’s quality, but I’d be lying if I said it entertains me.
Key song – ‘Third of May / Odaigahara’.
Weakest songs – ‘Mearcstapa’ – ‘On Another Ocean (January / June)’.
Rating – C
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