Album · Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
Helplessness Blues is an album by Fleet Foxes, released in 2011. 4 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 35 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “Helplessness Blues”, on 27 lists with a best position of #5.
Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes' second album, came out on Sub Pop and Bella Union on May 3, 2011, and it's the Seattle band widening the frame. Robin Pecknold, the band's leader and main songwriter, still sits at the center with Skyler Skjelset beside him, but this is the first record with bassist Christian Wargo and multi-instrumentalist Morgan Henderson, and the only one with Josh Tillman on drums and backing vocals before he left to become Father John Misty.
The band produced it themselves, and it's a lush, patient thing: baroque folk with refined, carefully layered arrangements and those pristine vocal harmonies stacked like cathedral stone. Critics were unanimous, it went to number 4 on the Billboard 200, their highest yet, and it earned a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Helplessness Blues on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Helplessness Blues | 27 | #5 | – | 2011–2026 | |
| 2 | Grown Ocean | 5 | #49 | – | 2011 | |
| 3 | Lorelai | 2 | #50 | – | 2011–2013 | |
| 4 | Montezuma | 1 | #562 | – | 2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.