When I heard that J. Tillman was leaving Fleet Foxes to do his own this thing full time I was kind of surprised. Fleet Foxes is a good enough, well-respected enough, successful enough band, that it seemed kind of weird for any one of the members to willingly back out to do something else. Who knows what happens within the inner core of each band, for all I know Robin Pecknold beats all of the members with a leather belt, but it did seem weird. It also came off a little surprising because he already had his own solo project of moderate success and he was leaving not to pursue that, but to tackle something entirely different. I was pritttttayyy iffy about the whole thing to say the least. Then I saw the video for what would be the single (I guess?) called “Hollywood Forever Cemetary Sings” and everything made so much sense immediately. The idea that he would leave Fleet Foxes to do something better than anything he’s ever been a part of seemed unlikely up until that point, but after seeing that, not only did it seem likely, it seemed like that was exactly what he was doing.

After hearing the single I had pretty high hopes for this album and it absolutely met them on every level. It’s an absolutely home run of an album. Makes me wonder if he was being strangled creatively and needed to finally bust loose with something wild on his own. Whether or not that’s true, this is certainly a wild busting loose. I know it’s a corny thing to say, but I feel confident in saying that I don’t have one single qualm about this album. Other than the one I have with myself in that I’m already wondering if it will be the album of the year. Oh well, it’s that good.

Matt Goold is a graphic designer proudly living and working in the New Jersey/Philadelphia area. He likes going camping, watching baseball, and eating ice cream. For more examples of his work go here and here.