In 1968, when members of three recently deceased bands—the Byrds, the Hollies, and Buffalo Springfield—improvised a cappella on a newly written song as a party trick, a whole new era of music was born.

The moment Graham Nash and David Crosby joined Stephen Stills on his “You Don’t Have to Cry”, history was made and arguably the best supergroup (my apologies, Traveling Wilburys) in the history of rock laid its foundation. Not to say that Crosby, Stills & Nash were perfect from the outset. Their first label audition, for Apple Records, was less than a success, and the group ended up levying a deal from Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records off his Buffalo Springfield fandom. Because it was, after all, a trio of rock stars, the group had to be handled delicately to prevent ego conflicts, and their record deal had to be structured to include an unusual amount of creative freedom to accommodate them.

CSN’s eponymous debut was filled with soaring, Baroque-influenced harmonies, and its songs were built out of layers of classically styled movements, all of which immediately struck a chord with the hippie generation already obsessed with old-fashioned madrigal-styled folk. Crosby, Stills & Nash was a culmination of what so many groups, especially Crosby’s own Byrds, had been working up to for years.

Ertegun essentially foisted a rogue Neil Young onto the group to round it out as they prepared to tour, and the newly minted Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young hit Woodstock.

Forty years later, indie stalwart label Sub Pop Records helped a young, scruffy quintet quietly emerge from a woodsy suburb of Seattle to gently lay a stunning debut album before music fans thirsty for complexity and beauty. Between 2006 and 2008, with their self-titled full-length and preceding two EPs combined, the Fleet Foxes accidentally created a whole new barometer for quality in modern music.

Back at Woodstock, Stills’ songs got some rough starts that included a hacking cough and nervous wavering, but ultimately, the group’s spectacular harmonies amazed the crowd. The balance between the three dominant voices (Neil Young only appeared for part of the set) hadn’t yet been reached, and different members stuck out prominently at different moments. However, between the raw spontaneity of a truly great band’s second show and the infectious energy of Woodstock, their set was sealed as one of the most remembered moments in the rock narrative. Fleet Foxes had significantly more time to prepare for their debut than CSNY. Meeting in high school, bandmates Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset played music together for years, catching the attention of Phil Ek in 2006, and exhaustively playing the local circuit, with the addition of friends J. Tillman, Casey Wescott, and Christian Wargo prior to the release of their full-length.

In contrast to CSNY’s slapdash introduction to music fans, by the time Fleet Foxes were playing to large crowds and attracting national attention, their live harmonies were flawless. While myriad other contemporary rock bands fought for the same plot of noisy indie-rock soil, Fleet Foxes took back some real estate from the past and recreated the gold standard for refined and impeccable live performances. Foxes lead singer Pecknold also resurrected a ’60s-era practice driven out of vogue by strutters like Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop: He performs seated, enrapturing the crowd, sans showmanship or pomp, with nothing more than his bare, astonishing voice.

While both bands had the zeitgeist on their side and were instantly embraced by fans eager for smart and intricate sounds, and even though Fleet Foxes’ live performances are nothing short of revelatory, no amount of ethereal exquisiteness can compete with the gut-wrenchingly beautiful moment Crosby, Stills & Nash created at Woodstock. In the live show category, it’s CSN(Y) by a nose.

For a debut (and also self-titled) album, Fleet Foxes is remarkably pristine. The songs sparkle and develop on top of and around each other. Pecknold employs restraint beyond his 23 years in his songwriting, leaving room in each song for a cappella vocal builds and multiple movements and changes. Early in the record, “White Winter Hymnal” is an increasingly gorgeous canon, with voices layering on top of voices in ever-rising keys until they explode overtop a rolling ocean of “oohs” and pounding timpani, while “Ragged Wood” journeys from a bright, poppy opening with driving snare drum and a high tenor vocal melody to an echoing lullaby in its middle, gradually building back into a dynamic musical force.

Fleet Foxes don’t fear the quiet, the understated, or the dark, and so they avoid the speedy, crotch-driven pitfalls of their contemporaries. In fact, one of the most critically acclaimed singles from Fleet Foxes, “Blue Ridge Mountains”, is a mysterious falsetto and minor-key slice of Appalachia that could make a Killers song sound like nails on a chalkboard (if it doesn’t already).

Crosby, Stills & Nash’s debut album was a similarly epic and preternaturally cultured piece of art. Between the stirring and gorgeously multifaceted “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, the hushed and mournful “Helplessly Hoping”, the more heavy-handed “Wooden Ships”, and the up-tempo “Marrakesh Express”, Crosby, Stills & Nash is an even-handed classic.

Although a few songs from Crosby, Stills, & Nash don’t hold up as well as “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, I doubt Fleet Foxes’ “Oliver James” will either, so until time shows the true mettle of Fleet Foxes, and until they make a sophomore album that can hold even a tiny candle to the powerhouse that is CSNY’s Déjà Vu, it looks like the supergroup wins the album round, too.

In this case, because Fleet Foxes still have a ways to go before their influences become less prominent (songs like “She Got Dressed” from their Fleet Foxes EP are carbon copies of Déjà Vu-era CSNY songs like “Country Girl”) and their singularity as a band leaves its permanent footprint, the boys of CSNY win the match. But I don’t care what the retro-purists say! Although here it was practically a shut-out, in my opinion, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young versus the Fleet Foxes is a cage match that can and should go many rounds.

I’ve been scoffed at by audiophile friends in the War on Drugs and the Black Keys for even so much as bringing it up (including a whisky spit-take from a member of the latter when I announced recently that Fleet Foxes are what Crosby, Stills & Nash wished they had sounded like at Woodstock), but speaking as one of those music fans whose ears were shocked and awed on first listen to Fleet Foxes, there is enough talent and intelligence and straight-up magic in that record to sustain arguments for the band’s greatness.

I give the Fleet Foxes bonus points for being able to stand up for multiple rounds against a mighty supergroup of ’60s luminaries, and more bonus points for even simply coming to mind in comparison to CSNY at all. And most importantly, the baroque harmonies of CSNY were in style in the ’60s in a way that they are definitely not now. For Fleet Foxes to employ them was a risky undertaking. But the fact that they could
charm even the most cynical of post-punk-loving modern-music listeners with an often slow and not immediately accessible sound, antique style earns them serious extra credit here.

Fleet Foxes are still incredibly young. It would be impossible to pit them record for record with CSNY because they have so far only made one. We can’t comment on durability (and making a prediction that Fleet Foxes will stack up to Déjà Vu decades from now would be pure speculation). But where they definitely win is in the solidarity category. While CSNY was always a tenuous lineup of near-equally dominant characters, Fleet Foxes is a solid band with a steady-handed leader in Pecknold. While CSNY crumbled in their third year as a band to pursue individual fame, the smart money is on Fleet Foxes staying together for a long time to come.

Watch: CSNY, “You Don’t Have to Cry” [at youtube.com]

Watch: Fleet Foxes, “White Winter Hymnal” [at youtube.com]

Tags: Crosby Stills and Nash, Neil Young, Fleet Foxes

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