Oh thank freakin’ gawd, readers; I don’t know about you, but I was, like, GETTING SO SICK listening to records where people aren’t sweetly strumming guitars and sonorously singing together (sorry, Brian Eno, but it’s true).
Thankfully, singer/songwriter Robin Pecknold has finally seen fit to yank his ornate psych-folk project Fleet Foxes out of the hiatus in which it’d been languishing for the past six years with the announcement of a new album that’s chock-full of strumming and singing, and it’s out June 16 on Nonesuch.
It’s called Crack-Up (HAHAHAHAHAHA… okay, done now), and it was co-produced by Pecknold and bandmate Skyler Skjelset, and recorded “at various locations across the United States between July 2016 and January 2017,” including Electric Lady Studios, Sear Sound, The Void, Rare Book Room, Avast, and The Unknown. Phil Ek (the wizard behind tons of beloved, idiosyncratic indie pop albums that also sounded bold enough to not seem out of place on the Starbucks counter) mixed it at Sear Sound, and it was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound. And before you ask whether it’s got “trademark harmonies” on it… yeah. Yeah, it does. It’s got a couple of those.
Don’t believe me? Just watch/listen to the album’s first single “Third of May / Ōdaigahara” in all nine minutes of its celebratory and extravagant “lyric video” glory right down below.
Then pre-order the shit out of the record via Nonesuch to receive your “instantaneous” (relative to your internet speed, I guess) download of that giant song, as well as an “exclusive, limited-edition print” of the album’s of artwork by Hiroshi Hamaya (also down below).
THEN (last directive, I promise), go see Robin and whoever-else-is-in-his-band-these-days on tour with the likes of Animal Collective and Beach House later this summer. Those dates are all neatly and chronologically listed for you — you guessed it! — down-the-fuck below. Get there.
Okay, you’re there. Here are all those payoffs I promised you:
Crack-Up tracklisting:
01. I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar
02. Cassius, -
03. - Naiads, Cassadies
04. Kept Woman
05. Third of May / Ōdaigahara
06. If You Need To, Keep Time on Me
07. Mearcstapa
08. On Another Ocean (January / June)
09. Fool’s Errand
10. I Should See Memphis
11. Crack-Up
Fleet Foxes tour dates:
05.26-29.17 - Sydney, Australia - Sydney Opera House Concert Hall
07.01.17 - Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain - Vida Festival
07.03.17 - Ferrara, Italy - Piazza Castello
07.07.17 - Bilbao, Spain - Bilboa BBK Live
07.13.17 - Dublin, Ireland - Iveagh Gardens
07.14.17 - Dublin, Ireland - Iveagh Gardens
07.16.17 - Southwold, England - Latitude Festival
07.27.17 - Portland, ME - Thompson’s Point
07.28.17 - Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival
07.29.17 - Columbia, MD - Merriweather Post Pavilion *
07.31.17 - Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for the Performing Arts *
08.01.17 - Brooklyn, NY - BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival (Prospect Park Bandshell)
08.04.17 - Toronto, Ontario - Massey Hall
08.06.17 - Detroit, MI - The Detroit Masonic Temple
09.23.17 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood Bowl @
09.27.17 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre @
* Animal Collective
@ Beach House