Released: Januray 26th 2009

Music-fan darlings, Fleet Foxes, re-released ‘Mykonos’ as their latest single. The track was originally part of their ‘Sun Giant’ EP, but it’s since been discontinued, which makes this re-release a grand return of an admirable song.

Robin Pecknold sings with a wistful melancholy about the titular Greek island, the idyllic seat of myth and magic. It can pass for a ballad, with touches of Weezer in its catchy choruses of swaying ‘oh’s’. Listening to the gentle strumming, it’s not hard to picture the bearded Pecknold strolling across the endless, sun-drenched, dusty highway with a suitcase in one hand and a beat-up old acoustic in the other.

Previously published on This Is Fake DIY.

Released: October 20th 2008

Seattle five-piece Fleet Foxes have been both hot-tipped by the critics and adored by music fans and the adulation is duly deserved, because when they’re good, they’re great.

‘He Doesn’t Know Why,’ the latest single off their album, is placid and heavenly like a particularly heady high filled with rainbows and cavorting unicorns in green meadows. It’s so melodic that you feel like you’ve heard it before because humming along feels quite natural. During the last 30 seconds the song veers off with a strange adage of piano music with an eastern twist, tying the song off neatly and efficiently.

Laid-back, but thoughtful and deeply emotional, Fleet Foxes strike us a bit like Belle & Sebastian, but more 60s folk than Scots twee.

Previously published on This Is Fake DIY.