Artist: Fleet Foxes

Title: Helplessness Blues

Label: Sub Pop

Sounding more like an act you'd hear at a renaissance fair than a rock festival, Seattle-based Fleet Foxes wasn't expecting the major commercial attention its alternative-edged baroque folk debut received upon release in 2008.

That self-titled set went platinum in the United Kingdom, and ensuing rounds of unforeseen touring opportunities meant three years would pass before this second album, Helplessness Blues, could finally arrive.

But the wait is justified by the high creative quality of these twelve lo-fi minded songs about love and life—each one marked by gauzy musical influences from the 1960s or early ‘70s, wandering arrangements, and poetic contemplations.

Beyond the initial thrill of hearing Fleet Foxes' retro vibe again (honey-thick layered harmonies that owe a nod to Smile-era Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills and Nash, pure voices and pastoral instrumentation that are a million miles away from auto-tuning and sequencing), Helplessness Blues quickly stands out for the grownup questions it asks.

On the slow blooming opener "Montezuma," twenty-five-year-old singer Robin Pecknold thoughtfully looks back at his parents having children and wonders, "Could I dream of such a selfless and true love; could I wash my hands of just looking out for me?" With a knee-slapping melody and Arabian-flavored violin, "Bedouin Dress" finds him pondering "the only regret of my youth . . . to take and not return." Best is the title track, a folksy anthem Simon & Garfunkel would envy that sings of "serving something beyond me."

The six members of Fleet Foxes temper such direct philosophical moments with cryptic storytelling songs like the incantation-inspired "Sim Sala Bim," where swelling strings give way to a delightfully extended guitar jam. "The Plains/Bitter Dancer" seems anxious and mellow at once as it swirls in minor key psychedelics. Likewise, "The Shrine/An Argument" trips back and forth from a summery yawn to a hearty yell, concluding with a surprise free jazz experiment that works quite nicely.

Helplessness Blues confirms Fleet Foxes is a confidently maturing band that provides a dynamic listening experience. Whenever the traditional folk charms threaten to become cliché, new angles start from a clarinet, Moog synthesizer, wood flute, or timpani drums; there are even Tibetan singing bowls in the mix. "Grown Ocean" concludes the record with Pecknold still dreaming of further enlightenment—"All my life I will wait to attain it." Intimate music, epic quest: this is the sound of getting closer to that noble goal.

*This review first published May 11, 2011