Are you intimidated by Pitchfork? Afraid of its writers judging your taste with words to describe music you’ve never heard of? Relax, loser. Intern Anastasia is here to demystify their reviews.

This week: Fleet Foxes’ “Sun Giant” EP.

Pitchfork says:

Rating: 8.7

The opening track on Fleet Foxes' debut EP is the perfect introduction to this Seattle band, whose carefully fashioned songs reward more active listening than your typical indie-roots outfit. ‘Sun Giant’ begins with their soft harmonies reverberating in what sounds like a cathedral space. With no accompaniment, their sustained a cappella notes fade slowly, adding gravity to this hymn of contentment: ‘What a life I lead in the summer/ What a life I lead in the spring.’ The only other instrument is Skyler Skjelset's mandolin, which enters late in the song playing a delicate theme as singer Robin Pecknold hums quietly.

Full Word Count: 699

Anastasia says:

Even I don’t know everything about Pitchfork. For example, what does “modest but never spare, atmospheric but never as an end in itself” mean? Pitchfork does that quick reversal a lot—something is “x but not y,” or “other critics say x, but that’s not quite true because…” or they put two unexpected words together, like “elegant decay.” It’s a neat trick, but exhausting to read several times in one piece.

And so many adverbs and adjectives! “After the quiet title track comes ‘Drops in the River,’ which builds gradually as the band patiently add instruments– strange ambient clattering in the background and simple floor toms in place of a drum kit, accentuated with tambourine and a snaky electric guitar.” Does no one there own The Elements of Style?

On to the music. The album was recorded in “what sounds like a cathedral,” and the “songs inhabit a very specific, very rural space.” So yes, as you may have guessed from the name, this is yet another subdued folk-rock band, who occasionally sound like they’re singing in Sunday choir. Their songs have woodsy titles, like “Sun It Rises.” The singer sounds like James Taylor—a James Taylor who sometimes slips into falsetto.

Hey, remember when folk songs were about hating the government and loving whiskey and the devil getting your woman, instead of about forests and bears and the colors of the fucking wind? Yeah, I don’t either.

Word Count: 237 (oof! although it’s 194 without that adjective-laden sentence).

[Fleet Foxes on Myspace]