Stream It: Fleet Foxes' New “Hopelessness Blues”

Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} Faced with the prospect of producing a follow-up to their career-bestowing 2008 self-titled album, thoughtful folkies Fleet Foxes were beset with sophomore-slump pressure. 

"You just want to make the best thing that you can, you know?” frontman Robin Pecknold told Stereogum. “You want it to be a good song, but it can't be too much like anything else you've already done. And you can't help but think about the landscape that this music is going to be received in, which also affects your creative process." 

After much frazzled running around (including mixing the entire album twice), Hopelessness Blues comes out May 3 on Sub Pop/Bella Union. Stream it in its entirety over at NPR’s First Listen. Download the title track for free at their website. And below, watch the band perform a track from the album, "Grown Ocean," on Later Live with Jools Holland.

--EB

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