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A brief environmental video essay that analyzes Fleet Foxes’ songs Blue Ridge Mountains, Ragged Woods, and The Plains/Bitter Dancer in order to get ready for their release of their full album Crack-Up on June 16th. Specifically, I look at how Robin Pecknold and Fleet Foxes create a nostalgic and pastoral sound in their last three albums.
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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[Music]
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with just these few chords we foxes
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treats your ears to an aural nostalgia
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this simple strum of the guitar somehow
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sends your in your eye back to when you
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were a kid fascinated by a trickling
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creek that wandered through a grove of
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trees or they might even conjure an
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image of a rural landscape full of
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wandering sheep and grassy hills to
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their unique sound free foxes have
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managed to transform the experience of
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standing on top of a mountain or laying
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on a bed of pine needles into musical
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form and now after in almost six year
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hiatus the group is gearing up to
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release their newest album on June 16th
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which is a perfect excuse to look back
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through the band’s last three albums in
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order to better understand how they
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create a nostalgic and rustic mood to
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their sound and lyrics the band creates
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their wistfully organic music in three
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different ways the first is through the
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tambour or essentially the sonic texture
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of their instruments if we skip past the
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opening chords of Blue Ridge Mountains
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which you heard earlier we can clearly
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hear a pastoral sentiment
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[Music]
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the Playboy baroque combination of a
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mandolin deaden bass drum and tambourine
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could easily be heard at something like
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a 16th century Harvest Festival in the
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the band unabashedly draws this
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connections in your album artwork
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according to lead singer Robin Technol
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the band used the 1559 painting
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Netherlandish bothered for the cover of
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their first full-length album because it
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echoed the bucolic yet new wants to feel
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of their songs the instrumentation of
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Blue Ridge Mountains also calls to mind
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a more abstract natural sound the light
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tones of the mandolin echoes the call of
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springtime breeze and the rough hump of
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the accent and drum feels almost like a
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rolling Boulder or a foot communal pot
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thus the very tones of the instruments
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give shape to the natural places techno
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differences in key lyrics in addition to
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Tambor one of the more apparent aspects
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of Lee Fox’s nod to the natural world is
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their lyrical imagery almost all their
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songs are peppered with references to
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the outdoors but their song ragged woods
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seems to stand out from
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tactimon uses certain imagery to plant
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seeds of nostalgia for a natural scene
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for example the song begins with this
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playful line you haven’t gone
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[Music]
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follow my lead
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the use of mountain and spring technic
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immediately grounded lyrics and
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ultimately the song the textures of
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nature then he pulls the audience spirit
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a love young love with constant
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allusions to the outdoors lines like run
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the forest and settle down with me by
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the fire capture the emotions of the
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honeymoon period of a relationship by
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depicting carefree summer time scenes in
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nature themes which technology early
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experienced as a young boy growing up in
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Seattle in essence the lyrics are the
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linchpin of Fleet Foxes ability to imbue
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natural scenes and Dee Pollock
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landscapes with a nostalgic touch and
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finally harmony plays a large role in
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lending the free boxes of wistful
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organic and pastoral aesthetic the dense
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harmonies woven throughout many of their
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songs give off a modern-day medieval
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barred by but if you listen to their use
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of harmonies in a song like the plains
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better dancer there’s definitely more at
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work than just echoing the aesthetics of
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a medieval court or the vocal dynamics
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of 1960s groups like Crosby Stills Nash
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and young what makes the crescendo of
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harmonies in the plains better dancers
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so special is the way that they grow the
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acollins into an almost overwhelming
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chorus of voices that slowly created the
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atmosphere of a windswept claim the oohs
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and AHS of the vocal harmony thus echo
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the emotional serenity one feels when
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standing alone
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field nearby Oh Fleet Foxes identify
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themselves as a baroque pop and it’s a
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pretty apt way to describe them but
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their sound at times transcend this
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rustic genre through the unique Tambor’s
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of their instruments the playfully
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nuanced calls to the woods and their
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lyrics and their rich vocal harmonies
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Fleet Foxes has managed to capture the
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essence of a natural world in musical
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form this video took over 30 hours to
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make so you have the mean really
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appreciate your financial support on
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pitch down and as always if you like the
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video please share it around that really
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helps a lot that’s about it I will see
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you next Friday
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video.