Fleet Foxes are one of the most respected indie bands of their generation, and to a degree, that has been reflected on the charts: Helplessness Blues peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 while Crack-Up topped out at No. 9. As is often the case with indie bands, though, while the albums perform well, they haven’t had much success with singles on the Hot 100. In fact, before this week, Robin Pecknold and company had yet to get a song onto the chart.
This week, though, that changed: Post Malone’s “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol,” a collaboration with Fleet Foxes from Twelve Carat Toothache, debuted at No. 70 on the new Hot 100 chart dated June 18, giving the band their first-ever appearance on the chart.
Fleet Foxes appear on the #Hot100 for the first time this week, thanks to their feature on @PostMalone‘s “Love/Hate Letter To Alcohol” (debuts at No. 70).
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) June 13, 2022
The band was pretty happy about the accomplishment: On Instagram, the accounts for both the band and Pecknold shared a graphic noting the chart debut, with Fleet Foxes adding heart and sparkle emojis and Pecknold going with the “call me hand” emoji (which is also used to represent a shaka sign).
This collaboration was a long time coming: Posty called Pecknold a “great writer” in 2018, then in 2020, Pecknold said of his friendship with Malone, “He’ll text me every once in a while and it’s always a really fun thing to receive. To have that pop up in my iMessages, it always feels like a glitch in the Matrix or something. […] He’s a super sweet guy, he’s a real gentleman, and he’s probably the best melody writer in the business right now, I think. And by some glitch in the Matrix, we have a casual friendship.”