Soon, the wait will be over and Fleet Foxes fans can bask in the glow of the band’s second album, Helplessness Blues, due out in early May. However, the delay between their eponymous 2008 debut and this sophomore effort might have been lessened had leading man Robin Pecknold not decided the whole album needed to be re-recorded because the singer wasn’t happy with it.
It has emerged that Pecknold’s exacting standards were not quite met with the first mix of the record, moving him to go over his steps and try again. In an interview with Uncut magazine (via Digital Spy), Pecknold said, “When we did the first mix of the album it was like, ‘This is where we’re at, not where we want to be.’ I felt there were things that could be improved.”
He added, “I wasn’t being precious about it. I wanted the album finished and out as much as anyone. But as soon as we started retooling one or two of the tracks, that opened the floodgates.”
Helplessness Blues was originally supposed to be released last year, before Pecknold realised something wasn’t right, and to the young man’s credit he stuck to his guns about having his vision realised rather than cowing to the pressing demands of the labels, industry, schedules and tours.
He explained, “There was absolutely no chance I was going to ever put out something that I wasn’t totally convinced was as good as it could possibly be. I didn’t care how many times we had to re-record stuff.”
