Palebear Archives

October, 2007

Band of Horses
Cease To Begin

So how’s the new Band of Horses album Cease To Begin? Hm… here’s the thing. Band of Horses released Everything All The Time to a immense landslide of public acclaim, and it similarly blew my socks off from the moment I first heard it. There were the insta-hits “The Great Salt Lake” and “The Funeral” and nearly every other song on the album went into me like a shimmering tornado.

In other words, it was beautiful and try as I might, I couldn’t stop expecting something similar to happen with Cease to Begin. I think reviewing music, even as a part-time thing, tends to instill a bit of the jaded cynic in you. I expected rapid-fire, enthusiastic enjoyment immediately. I mean, I’m thrown so much music at once that it’s difficult to remember that some bands or albums take a little more time than others.

The thing is that there’s just no time – if I gave every band the time that I’m willing to give Band of Horses then I would be reviewing music 24 hours a day. And we all know where that leads…

Anyhow. Structurally, the music is intact – sweeping, dreamy and poignant rock. James Mercer meets My Morning Jacket meets Doug Martsch is still an apt comparison. Early on, the standouts for me were “Is There A Ghost”, “No Ones Gonna Love You”, and “Detlef Schrempf”. It’s not that the other songs are bad – I think they’re just going to need a little more time to percolate through my music-weary system. I also feel like this album seems a little too short – 10 songs clocking in at under 35 minutes.

But do I recommend it? Wholeheartedly. Beards and all.

Listen:
Is There A Ghost

On Itunes:
Everything All The Time (on Subpop)

Watch:
The Great Salt Lake (video)
The Funeral (video)

Visit:
Band of Horses website
Subpop website

by Palebear | Comments Off