Fleet Foxes' Poetic Response To A Predisposed Postmodern Destiny

Fleet Foxes is an alternative indie folk band that hails from Seattle, Washington. Over the past ten years Fleet Foxes has revolutionized the sounds and vocals that a band can produce- much of their music is akin to the mystical sensation of wandering through the woods, discovering the beauty and majesty of the world. Not only is their music deeply spiritual, but the lyrics of the song are truly poetic. The title track for their second album, Helplessness Blues, is no exception. A brilliant analysis and portrayal of finding oneself in a situation where the future is predisposed and trying with the best effort to break from that predisposition.

The song begins by equating the artist to a snowflake:

              "I was raised up believing I was somehow unique/like a snowflake among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see."

The artist has already established himself to be a person who has always perceived himself to be different from every other person in the world, but also uses the snowflake as a representation of fragility. The artist sings "like a snowflake AMONG snowflakes" in which he can admit that he is one of many, many fragile, manipulatable, and unique people. He establishes, then, that we are all unique. What he says later brings the struggle between finding true self to light:

              "And now after some thinking, I'd say I'd rather be/ a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me."

It is assumed that the artist is growing up, because he was "raised" to believe he was unique. But the world of "some great machinery" seems to try to define him as "a functioning cog." Perhaps society, the "machinery", is influencing the uniqueness of the artist, pushing him to be a part, a "cog" in a great machine that does not serve or better himself, but better the community. There is indeed something to be notable about serving a community, but to sacrifice uniqueness and artistry at its price seems to defeat the goal of keeping identity.

The three metaphors work to establish the type of world that the artist lives in, but also the type of person that he establishes himself to be.

The song continues to expound upon becoming or taking agency for the future,

             "I'll get back to you someday soon you will see."

By interjecting a personal "I" into the situation, the artist refuses to be defined by the situation surrounding him.

The singer then looks for some type of backbone to support his artistic career, while attempting to find some sort of reconciliation, but in the end he decides to break away from people who will determine his fate for him:

           "What's my name, what's my station, oh, just tell me what I should do/ I don't need to be kind to the armies of night that will do such injustice to you/ or bow down and be grateful and say 'sure take all that you see'/ to the men who move in dimly-lit halls and determine my future for me."

The artist has a moment of lost identity, he cannot determine who he is, and must be told exactly what to do. "The armies of night" who "move in dimly-lit halls and determine [his] future for [him]" could be anyone from the government to the "some great machinery" produced of the many many human cogs. The artist looses hope, but then determines that he will not be defined by the "armies of night" that "injustice" the listener experiences. This is an interesting dynamic. The audience is the listener, or, at least, someone locked in the "machinery." The listener seems to be trapped in a world where people (specifically men, which is indicative of a male dominated society) are making the decisions about the listener's future.  The image of "darkness" and "dimly-lit halls" brings forth foreboding, villainy, and sly under the table deals that perpetuate the idea that the machinery that is called society is rigged. The image of the "armies of night" creates a mood of fighting for darkness and ambiguity, as if those unique snowflakes, distinct in every way, are becoming nothing but an ambiguous and same force to create a mechanized and artificial world.

The artist becomes amazed with the world he can see, which is something nobody else seems to realize:

           "If I know only one thing, it's that everything I see/ of the world outside is so inconceivable often I barely can speak...what good is it to sing helplessness blues, why should I wait for anyone else?"

The singer becomes infatuated with the world outside as he becomes less and less content in his mechanized world. But, by singing this song, in part, the singer hopes to enliven and bring people to see the wonderful world around them. He eventually gives up hope in humanity when he says "what good is it now...why should I wait for anyone else?" The singer decides to give up mechanized community for a life dedicated to following an individualistic and fulfilling dream. 

The last lyric that is particularly striking brings the point all the way home:

           "If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm raw/If I had an orchard I'd work till I'm sore/And you'd wait the tables and soon run the store."

The singer envies those who can plow their own land and do work on their own field. The image of an orchard contradicts the great machinery of earlier. An orchard is fruitful, earthy, real, and dynamic. Machinery is artificial and standardized. The singer longs to be on an orchard, being one with the earth and himself, and would leave behind those who decide to become just a cog in our society.

Fleet Foxes completely rips the vail off of conformity, and anticipates the return to a time when each person can be their own unique and distinct snowflake. The band rejects community by equating standardization and machinery to the predisposition in our society. There is a circle that is often left unbroken, and Fleet Foxes aims to remind us of breaking from the cycle and returning to roots and values of individual passion and dreams.