CD of The Week

Back in March, Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold released a free three-song EP to fans through Twitter, simply titled Three Songs. The mostly-solo recording (with one track featuring Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste) was a showcase for Pecknold's gentle, yet powerful vocals and thoughtful songwriting. In a way, it may have been an argument that he didn't really need Fleet Foxes. If that was the case, however, the band's sophomore LP, Helplessness Blues, is an effective counterargument.

Don't get me wrong, Pecknold is still the driving force behind the group, and his songs have actually become more personal. But at the core, he writes lyrics that are direct enough to remain universal. In the album's opening song, "Montezuma," Pecknold takes on the responsibilities that come with age, such as parenthood, and the uncertainty bundled with it. When he sings, "So now I am older than my mother and father when they had their daughter? Now what does that say about me?" it isn't hard to feel the weight of maturity along with him.

Elsewhere, he addresses love and its often bitter aftermath, through songs such as "Sim Sala Bim," the devastatingly quiet "Someone You'd Admire" ("One of them longs to be someone you'd admire. One would just as soon throw you on the fire") and "The Shrine/An Argument," which acts out the stinging resolution of a relationship melted away. His ultimate statement, however, is the title track, which begins by recounting the key principle our parents ever taught us ("I was raised up believing I was somehow unique, like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see"), before turning it upside down and wondering if it's better to follow a greater plan than to lead one's own destiny.

Yet for all of Pecknold's introspection, strength and songcraft, it's the band that brings an added sense of grandeur to much of the work. The harmonies that helped distinguish the band on its Sun Giant EP and self-titled full-length are still present, often used to choral effect. The instrumentation has grown even more dense, with strings, synthesizers and woodwinds used like paintbrushes, each note a vibrant stroke, as on instrumental track "The Cascades," which sounds as elegant as anything a band like Sigur Ros could create.

Fleet Foxes made their name by blending their folky aesthetic and subject matter with gorgeous baroque pop arrangements. While that hasn't changed with Helplessness Blues, the songs pack more of an emotional haymaker this time around, to create a gorgeous, bittersweet portrait of a man still figuring out what it means to be grown. Helplessness Blues isn't just a wonderful album, it's a stunning work of art.