"Blue Ridge Mountains"

"Down" in the second "Lie down" at the beginning of "Blue Ridge Mountains" is sung with a generally descending melisma (Bb Ab Gb F Gb F Eb, I think), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

"He Doesn't Know Why"

In "He Doesn't Know Why," the phrase "Pull the wool over your eyes" is sung to such a melody (C# D# E# C# A# G# A#) that in terms of pitch, "wool" (E#) really is over "eyes" (A#).

"Quiet Houses"

In "Quiet Houses," some of the "Lay me down"s are sung to descending phrases (D# C# C#, C# B B), musically giving a sense of that "lay[ing]... down."

"Ragged Wood"

In "Ragged Wood," "long" in "you have been gone too long" is sung with a melisma (G# B G#), musically giving a sense of duration.  Similarly, "all" in "settled before us all" is sung with a melisma (B C# F#), musically giving a sense of number.  "Fly" in the line "When the sparrow and seagull fly" is also sung with a melisma (B G#), which - although descending - musically gives a sense of movement.

Introduction

I don't remember when I started listening to Fleet Foxes, but I think it was around the time Helplessness Blues was released.  I bought the multi-track stems for Shore even before I had listened to the album.  For years now, I've been working on a handful of projects where I try to figure out every part to every song by a particular band.  I reasoned that since I've been able to make as much progress in those projects as I have (where, at best, my resources extend to alternate mixes or different takes), figuring out parts where each is isolated in a separate track should be fairly simple.  That's the main objective of this project, although I don't plan to start on that until July.  I want to give myself time simply to enjoy the album before scrutinizing every note.

In the meantime, I'll be posting musicological notes I made about the other three albums (but mostly Helplessness Blues, which is my favorite).