Sites like Reddit seem to constantly be teeming with theories and conspiracies about everything from musicians to TV shows to video games. Like many people, Reddit users get obsessed with their favorite entertainers and want hypothesize about the meaning behind their work or what will come next. Typically, these theories remain just that, theories, but recently, one Reddit user, blackbirdpie, got one of his theories about the new Fleet Foxes album, Crack-Up proven correct.
Fleet Foxes, originally including Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty, are still a modern folk essential. Their last album prior to Crack-Up, 2011’s Helplessness Blues seemed to end a little too abruptly, according to blackbirdpie. The user expressed their feeling that the last track on the album, “‘Grown Ocean,’ seems slightly incomplete” and speculated “if this was on purpose.” It seemed to “end too soon” for blackbirdpie who thought that “a final chord or line is missing that would tie things up.”
The user said, on a subreddit, that: “it got me thinking that maybe Crack-Up will open with that missing chord, so that Helplessness Blues blends seamlessly into it.” blackbirdpie was so intent on their theory, that they recorded a demo to illustrate the exact chord progression they thought would lead into the next Fleet Foxes album. Well, this Reddit user was actually proved to be exactly right.
Current frontman of Fleet Foxes, Robin Pecknold, responded to blackbirdpie on Reddit, announcing that the “first note on new album is F for exactly this reason… never thought anyone would think about it besides me but you nailed it!” This Reddit user must really be freaking out; their theory was not only confirmed, but by Fleet Foxes themselves!
Hear the actual recorded confirmation of the album-connecting theory on June 16th when Crack-up comes out via Nonesuch Records, and stream the first track, “Third Of May / Ōdaigahara” below.
