Helplessness Blues

I interrupt your regularly scheduled reading to announce my long-anticipated purchase today: the Fleet Foxes new album, Helplessness Blues. To be honest, I wouldn't consider myself as someone who keeps up with the new music scene. Sadly, my music collection has taken a back seat since beginning graduate school. These days, I keep playing Radiohead, The Allman Brothers, and The Beatles on repeat. But every now and then, you hear some dear friends continuously raving about a certain band. It isn't the fleeting type of rave (not pun intended), but the one that keeps coming up again and again by anyone you know with great taste in music. This is what happened with the Fleet Foxes. The first song I heard from the new album was "Grown Ocean." It is one of those songs which reinforces the romantic in you and reminds you that hope and redemption really do exist, at least in song.

Since I intentionally tried to do nothing but take time off this week after wrapping up graduate school on Friday, I completely missed the release of their new album on Tuesday. But I finally bought it this afternoon. After marveling at the intricate and fantastic album artwork and design, I popped the new CD into my car stereo system to listen to pure gold. The vocals are stunningly similar to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, which couldn't be a better precedent to set. In short, you should go out and buy it. No, like immediately. And just skip to track two, entitled "Bedouin Dress."