Crack-Up

Crack-Up is the third studio album by American band Fleet Foxes, released on June 16, 2017, by Nonesuch Records. Loosely inspired by F. Scott Fitzgerald's essay collection of the same name, it is the follow-up to their 2011 album Helplessness Blues, following the band's three-year hiatus from 2013 to 2016. It is also the band's first release on the Nonesuch label since departing Sub Pop. Recording Crack-Up was recorded at various locations across the United States between July 2016 and January 2017: Electric Lady Studios, Sear Sound, The Void, Rare Book Room, Avast Recording Company, and The Unknown. Phil Ek mixed the album at Sear Sound, and Greg Calbi mastered it at Sterling Sound. Release Fleet Foxes released the first song from the album on March 7, 2017: "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", a "nearly nine-minute epic powered by piano and electric twelve-string guitar, string quartet, and the group's trademark sparkling harmonies"; on the same day, Robin Pecknold appeared on Apple Music's Beats 1 radio station to discuss the new song, as well as the band's hiatus and their upcoming tour. The song was released via Fleet Foxes' new YouTube channel, coupled with a lyric video created by Sean Pecknold and Adi Goodrich. The following day, Pecknold annotated some of the lyrics of the song using Genius, and appeared on BBC Radio 6 Music. An edited version of "Third of May / Ōdaigahara", with a duration of 4:02, was released three days later. On March 18, 2017, Pecknold used Reddit to confirm a fan's theory that the first track on the new album would begin exactly where the last track on their previous album, Helplessness Blues, ended. Thus, the last notes of "Grown Ocean" will connect to the first notes of "I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar".