Fleet Foxes

Acoustic folk-rock saw a revival in the late '00s, but Seattle's Fleet Foxes had different roots than most: They took the mournful strains of Appalachian folk as their starting point, seasoning that with some alternative country and even a little Beach Boys and Pink Floyd between the lines. The band's roots went back to Lake Washington High School in the suburb of Kirkland, where singer/guitarist Robin Pecknold and guitarist Skyler Skjelset became friends and shared their record collections. The two moved to Seattle and started a band, initially called the Pineapples, gradually adding keyboardist Casey Wescott, guitarist Christian Wargo, bassist Morgan Henderson and drummer Josh Tillman. The band built a local following and went national after the release of their 2008 EP Sun Giant followed by an eponymous album on the well-established Sub Pop label. That year brought a rush of success including a write-up in Rolling Stone (which pronounced them "awesomely weird"), and an appearance on The David Letterman Show. They also toured with Wilco, and the two bands regularly joined forces for an encore of Dylan's "I Shall Be Released." During the recording of the second album, Helplessness Blues, Pecknold took time off to open for Joanna Newsom as a soloist. Playing the songs alone sent him helped him find the direction for the album, which was steeped in English influences-notably Roy Harper and Fairport Convention. The album hit #4 on the Billboard charts and got a Grammy nomination as Best Folk Album (losing to the Civil Wars). During 2013 Fleet Foxes announced (or seemed to announce, through photo posts online) that they were working on their third album, yet they went on hiatus soon afterward, as Pecknold opted to get his undergraduate degree from Columbia University. Little was heard until mid-2016, when new photo posts appeared and the band (now including drummer Neal Morgan replacing Tillman, who had launched a successful solo career under the name Father John Misty) had reconvened to make the third album, to be called Crack-Up. During interviews Pecknold noted that he'd been listening to Radiohead and aiming for a different sound. The first new music to emerge was a cover of Harry Nilsson's bittersweet "Don't Forget Me" which appeared in his brother Sean Pecknold's short film, A Study in Time Travel.