For its pastoral songs about coming down from the mountains for spring, running through forests, walking along streams, and listening to the serenade of meadowlarks, Fleet Foxes chose a suitably bucolic Bruegel painting for their album cover. Just don't expect the music to evoke medieval Belgium!
Album cover featuring The Blue Cloak - by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-69)
Fleet Foxes - The band
Blog Discussion
This album cover is pretty pretentious... just putting a classic painting on your album cover doesn't make you cool... Posted by Anonymous | April 16, 2008 4:51 PM
aren't most album covers made by artists (not the band)? what's the difference if it is some contemporary work vs. a great classic? it may be a little pretentious, but i think it is appropriate none the less, so what's the big deal? Posted by Anonymous | April 16, 2008 5:37 PM
Is it pretentious because it's really old? I guess "fine art" can be a pretty pretentious world and maybe this feels "fine arty" but we just picked it cause it's really beautiful and there's a ton of bizarre stuff going on when you really get a good look at the whole thing. (And all the little scenes correspond to a different Dutch proverbs) Posted by Dread Viscount Robynne N. Pecknolde IV | April 17, 2008 4:18 AM (aka Robin Pecknold, band member) http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/04/fleet_foxes_whi.html
Netherlandish Proverbs (also called The Blue Cloak or The Topsy Turvy World) depicts a land populated with literal renditions of Flemish proverbs of the day. The picture is overflowing with references relating to themes of absurdity, wickedness and foolishness of mankind.
To toss feathers in the wind - To work fruitlessly
To bell the cat - To be indiscreet about plans that should be secret