In Defense of Indie Music
A little over a week ag
o, I read Paul O’Donnell’s post on Wilco with eagerness. I love the band, and I was excited to see a Commonweal writer engaging with popular music so enthusiastically. (The post reminded me of Eric Bugyis’s interesting thoughts on the Hold Steady.)
Then, however, I got to the comments. There I found an awful lot of doom and gloom being proclaimed. Young people and their music are embittered and whiny, I heard; they express no hope in humanity; all popular music (or at least all somewhat popular indie rock) is just so much rhythmic moping.
Of course, this isn’t a true assessment of young people or their cultural expressions. Speaking from my own area of expertise, I can tell you that the defining characteristic of fiction in the last fifteen or so years has been an increase in sincerity and hopefulness. People like Dave Eggers and David Foster Wallace have argued again and again that an ironic, embittered attitude towards the world isn’t enough, and that any art that reflexively resigns itself to this kind of attitude is necessarily impoverished. One of the major projects of post-post-modernism (or whatever you want to call our current moment) is the reclaiming of huge swathes of human experience—love, joy, commitment, sacrifice—as viable subjects for literary representation.
But, looking back to music, I want to point out one band that should disprove any sweeping claims about the self-indulgent despair of my generation: Fleet Foxes. The band hails from Seattle, and it shows in their predilection for flannel shirts, unkempt beards, and long hair. Their sound, however, is anything but grungy. The band’s 2008 self-entitled debut album was filled with sweet-sounding harmonizing and pleasing melodies. (And the band appeared unembarrassed to write and perform sweet, pleasing songs.) Displaying a variety of influences from Neil Young to gospel and sacred harp music, Fleet Foxes was really more a tone poem than anything else: singer/songwriter Robin Pecknold seemed less interested in telling a story than in creating a particular mood or feel. The title of the album’s most popular song, “White Winter Hymnal,” hints at this mood: light, mysterious, haunting, angelic. (Here is a lyrical sample: “I was following the pack, / All swallowed in their coats / With scarves of red tied ‘round their throats / To keep their little heads / From fallin’ in the snow.” Lest this sound overly precious, listen to the song, through Spotify.) Fleet Foxes was a tremendous debut. The songs were lush and moving, with Pecknold’s lyrics often beautifully blending into a kind of choral chanting.
The band’s most recent album, the 2011 Helplessness Blues, is even stronger. Pecknold’s lyrics have become clearer without losing their poetic suggestiveness. This time, Fleet Foxes has a particular, compelling story to tell: the story of a young man reaching adulthood and trying to figure out what kind of life he wants to lead. (Pecknold was born two years after me, so I share many of his concerns.) The album’s first song, “Montezuma,” introduces the album’s major theme: “So now I am older, / Than my mother and father / When they had their daughter. / Now what does that say about me?” Much has been made of my generation’s delayed adolescence—the NY Times seems to run a story every other week about college graduates moving back in with their parents—and Pecknold here and throughout grapples with the need to grow up, to move beyond childish selfishness to a more mature selflessness. At one point he wonders, “How could I dream of / Such a selfless and true love? Could I wash my hands of / Just lookin’ out for me?” This is the album’s main concern: how to give of oneself so as to become more truly oneself.
The album’s title track, “Helplessness Blues,” opens with a description of our culture’s obsession with uniqueness: “I was raised up believin’ / I was somehow unique / Like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes / Unique in each way you can see.” This attitude, however, has left Pecknold unmoved: “Now, after some thinkin’ / I’d say I’d rather be / A functionin’ cog in some great machinery / Servin’ somethin’ beyond me.” He doesn’t yet know what this greater cause will be—it could be social, political, artistic, maybe even romantic— but the desire and hope for what Iris Murdoch calls “unselfing” is palpable. Again, the band’s lack of embarrassment is refreshing. They are unafraid to ask the largest of questions—what is a good life?—and they are unafraid to admit that they don’t yet know the answer.
Despite its title, the album is precisely an argument against helplessness and unthinking despair. By the end of the title track, Pecknold still hasn’t figured things out: maybe he should open an orchard, he thinks, and find happiness in working the land. (This pastoral dream is a recurring one for the band: in both “Bedouin Dress” and “The Shrine / An Argument,” there are allusions to Innisfree, the ideal pastoral landscape of W. B. Yeats.) For now, all he can do is marvel at, and hope to do justice to, the beauty that surrounds him:
If I know only one thing
It’s that everything that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak.
Yeah, I’m tongue-tied and dizzy
And I can’t keep it to myself.
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?
Turning wonder into song, and sharing this song with others: it’s a traditional move for folk music, and it’s something that Fleet Foxes does extremely well. And in pulling it off, they show that, in both popular music and in my generation broadly speaking, there is reason for hope.
Anthony –
I’m delighted there is now a group doing sweet, hopeful music. (I’ve always thought that rock is sincere — that’s part of its appeal, no doubt). It’s been a long, long time since Dolly Parton. Still, today’s typical music really worries. My two beloved great-grIand nieces are 7 and 9. The 9 year old seems to be going on 20, and the 7 year old can belt out a popular song pretty well:-) I pray that they have something more inspiring coming up.
Oops — didn’t say what I meant to.
I wonder whether the Seattle area is typical of the country, and wonder if that music has a chance of becoming popular nationwide. First, Seattle’s natural surroundings are beautiful. There’s not much beauty in most American cities, particularly the slums, which is where a big proportion of current American music comes form. Second, Seattle is the scene of a lot of the computer industry, so I”m assuming that the recession hasn’t hit it so hard as, say, California. Also, the Seattle education system is outstanding. So I can’t imagine that those kids started out as depressed as so many other kids seem to do these days. The bullying in the schools alone is enough to depress them.
My point is I wonder if kids in other areas can identify with the Seattle group. How many albums have they sold?
Anthony, you’re absolutely right, of course, and we could easily add to your list: Bon Iver, Belle and Sebastian, Sufjan Stephens, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (and many more). I also enjoyed Paul O’Donnell’s post and was saddened by the reactions to it. Not only are these artists sincere and hopeful, they also are interested in religious imagery whether or not they are “religious” themselves. Some of my best conversations in college were with non-Christian friends about the Christian imagery in the “secular” songs I played on my radio show!
Ann,
The first Fleet Foxes album debuted at #3 on the UK charts, #36 on the U.S.; Helplessness Blues debuted at #2 and #4, respectively. That’s a pretty darn successful rock band, I’d say. (All that info is from wikipedia.) I went to one of their concerts in Massachusetts a few weeks ago, and the crowd was incredibly varied, with lots of teenagers and college kids as well as also lots of middle-aged and older couples.
Scott,
I’d like to add to the list Mumford & Sons. Sigh No More (2009) has absolutely blown my mind. One of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time, and right up my alley, from the Shakespeare allusions (“sigh no more” is from Much Ado About Nothing) to the religious imagery (one song is called “Roll Away Your Stone”) to the incredible banjo playing.
Sampled the amazon samples. Couldn’t make out the words. That’s always a big turn off for me. I seem to have more difficulty with that than others, but, still, the vocals – at least on their first album – are very mushy. Of course, if you already know the words, I guess you won’t be bothered by enunciation problems.
The music reminds me of an LP I picked up in Toronto many years ago of a young French-Canadian group. Pleasant, lazy bouncy, sunny. Maybe there’s a style there that hasn’t changed much in decades. What would you call it? It’s nice enough, but I’m guessing that it’s not meant to be much more than background music for social gatherings of nice people in Ontario and Washington.
Certainly not whiny, though :O)
Of course, art – or whatever this would be called – is always a matter of personal taste. No doubt if you like anything, it’s great.
I think you’re right, Ann. I’ve never been to the northwest – would love to go – but from reports I’ve heard, it’s a little enclave of pleasant, like-minded people. Very different, probably, from most of the rest of the world. Some of the music that comes out of there is lovely – some of the Celtic stuff, for example – although the best of that, I think, is a European transplant.
Anthony –
That’s really good news about Fleet Foxes debut. Sounds like an audience out there has been waiting for them :-)
Anthony and Paul, what is it about this indie music that appeals to you? Is it the gentleness, the thoughtfulness of the lyrics, the fact, apparently, that it’s directed to concerns of young people trying to find their way in the world, the tunes, the rhymes, the way it fits into a certain social context? Do the young people who listen to it also listen to other kinds of music – the violent and self-pitying music that are also out there – or is this their only music? Would you expect them to take it with them as they grow older – as, say, the boomers seem to have taken their rock music with them – or will they abandon it for something more appropriate to their new places in a more mature, settled life? Will they still play it in their old age? If they’ll leave it when they leave post-adolescence, what will take its place? Do you see something positive out there now, waiting for them as they age?
Interesting phenomenon. Thanks for writing about it.
“Indie” music can include violent and self-pitying (or, my personal preference: violent and pitiless) music, as well as music exhibiting “gentleness [and] thoughtfulness.” So let’s not get carried away here.
A two-second google check tells me that “indie” means just unaffiliated with a major record label. Guess I should have known that. Sorry.
But I’m still curious about the genre to which Fleet Foxes belongs. How would you file it in a library? Not folk or world. Religious? It’s totally outside my ken – I’ve never read about it, listened to it, or known (so far as I know) anyone who listened to it. Yet, apparently it’s extremely popular. Among whom? Is it new? Been around for decades? I don’t think I’ve ever heard it on public radio. What stations play it?
If I had to classify Fleet Foxes, I’d say folk, though rock would work well, too. (Especially the second album.) As for who listens to it, one of the songs I mentioned, “Helplessness Blues,” is playing in the Starbucks I’m doing work in right now. Not sure if that helps.
Yes, it does – very much. Thanks.
Anthony, I understand coffee is a big deal in the Northwest. You think it will catch on elsewhere?
A little more upbeat than the artists mentioned, but you should check out Deas Vail. The singer has a wonderful tenor voice with a falsetto that reminds me of Freddie Mercury. His wife plays keyboards and sings backup vocals. And they come up with some of the most interesting and literally beautiful pop/rock around.
Check out “Atlantis” and “Shoreline.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=215a2CI-OlM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJrBFx6YpWI
Last night on one of the late night shows the ancient Tony Bennett sang a ballad. The audience seemed to really appreciate it. Maybe gentle music is on the way back.
Like Anthony Domestico, I come in praise of Fleet Foxes.
It is not, I should note, because of any larger sociological or cultural significance to Fleet Foxes’ advent. Because I’m not sure there really is any.
Fleet Foxes has emerged (2008-) in the middle of a wave of indie (or just call it alternative) folk – artists like Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Marisa Nadler, or M. Ward. But none of them is quite like Fleet Foxes, a band whose pitch perfect baroque pop harmonies harkens back to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, America, and late period Beach Boys – without merely mimicking any of them. They’re really out there in a unique niche – whatever label you might put on it. If there’s hope and optimism in Pecknold’s lyrics, it’s a particularly personal hope and optimism, though it might well be one that resonates with a wider audience, an audience that’s especially ready to hear it. And judging by their record sales, perhaps it does resonate. But I suspect the melodies and harmonies are the stronger selling point.
Fleet Foxes has moved largely under the popular radar, record sales and late night TV appearances not withstanding. (They are a little bit bigger in Europe than over here, to be honest). But that is true of most contemporary rock music of the current generation, which is largely bypassed in the popular consciousness now by hip hop and R&B. After a moment in the sun in the 90′s, alternative rock is truly alternative once again, and its audience is mostly white, middle class, twenty something – though there was a fair smattering of demographic and other diversity at the Foxes concert I saw at Merriwether Post Pavilion a few weeks ago.
Which is a shame. Because, whatever their wider significance, they deserve a wider audience. If you haven’t sampled their music, set aside a few minutes to try them out.
My Morning Jacket: I first heard them on a tribute album to Shel Silverstein (Did you know Silverstein wrote A Boy Named Sue and Sylvia’s Mother and other country songs?). Twistable Turnable Man is way cool; Lucinda Williams, John Prine and a bunch of people sing on it.
I am going to buy Fleet Foxes for my husband.
The first Fleet Foxes album makes a great Christmas gift–it has a very wintry feel, as evidenced by the most played song from the album, “White Winter Hymnal,” which also happens to have a great music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE
I really enjoy My Morning Jacket as well. (I first heard about them through another Commonweal contributor, Eric Bugyis.)