Johanna's Reviews > Wading in Waist-High Water: The Lyrics of Fleet Foxes

'Wading in Wasit-High Water' is the spectacular collection of lyrics across Fleet Foxes' entire category.

This band's work is one of the most important creative influences in my life, both musically and lyrically. Never before have I found art that guides me in the same way, art that pierces through my soul and tears me apart and exposes elements of my own curiosity and sorrow and passion so accurately.

Every piece from the EP 'Sun Giant', the earlier folk albums 'Fleet Foxes' and 'Helplessness Blues' to the more recent experimental records 'Crack-Up' and 'Shore' masterfully details the facets of emotional expression and are brilliant testaments to honest human experience. Every song, even those that are merely instrumental, follow a narrative of some sort and are interwoven with magic.

To speak of their sonical wonderland is a seperate conversation to their lyrical landscape and this book uproots the language without its musical companion. This creates an entirely different experience and Pecknold's songs rather read as poems. Both the introduction and afterword express this sentiment better than I could - the intimacy and expertise with which the band writes.

Reading the lyrics on their own fabricates a richer relationship with the band's musical universe and the only thing I wished this book had were more footnotes! Some songs were robust in their analytical commentary and others had only few remarks. I would love to know more behind the process, intentions and hidden meanings.

Nonetheless, I would undeniably recommend this read to aspiring artists of any kind, especially musicians and certainly to Fleet Foxes fans as it truely is an absolutely magnificent oeuvre.