Music Friday: "Helplessness Blues"

I read about Fleet Foxes a couple of years ago when the band's debut album came out. I didn't pick it up then.

The band is the part of the vibrant music scene in Portland, Oregon, a milieu that, as far as I can tell, trends toward a folky-indie sound with the notable exception of the fine band Truckstop Darlin', which is alt-country of the Drive-By Truckers/Lucero persuasion.

A few weeks back I picked up the second album of Fleet Foxes titled Helplessness Blues. It's a damn fine album, and I really like the title track, which is below.





Like Blitzen Trapper, The Low Anthem, Blind Pilot, and The Morning Benders, this band seems to be one of the darlings of alternative music reviewers/bloggers, as you can witness by reading Hear*Ya's album review. For a different take on the album, check out what's said about it on Twangville.

I came into my first listen of the album (an inexpensive download deal) with skepticism akin to the writer's on Twangville. Then I liked the second album so much that I bought the first one.

And if you're someone who has sat in a hospital waiting for a surgery to get over, I'm sure you've had your own bout of helplessness blues--not dreams of orchards, or thinking of a different life, or questioning what you were told like in the song, but a more direct feeling of helplessness.