Band of Horses - Everything All The Time

Band of Horses
Everything All The Time

Somtimes I really hate Pitchfork.

I’d gotten the new Band of Horses pre-release of Everything All The Time more than a month ago and it had taken up residence in the trusty Ipod. Slowly winning me over with their intoxicating blend of dreamy and orchestral horsey musings. Forget Brokeback Mountain’s cowboys, I’ll take this band of horses anyday. I’d come up with a perfect opening comparison for them and was just about ready to take on writing them up. Then, the other day I turn on Pitchfork and see the EXACT same comparison waiting there for me.

What a bummer. Anyhow, what I had thought was an immensely original comparison was that Band of Horses remind me of My Morning Jacket fronted by James Mercer of The Shins. Looking back on it, that wasn’t such an amazing intuition. This is exactly how they come across to me.

I guess you snooze you lose. We don’t have a staff of millions. But enough about us, what about the amazing Band of Horses? Well, they are amazing.

Like The Shins, their music goes for the gut, with grand, sweeping, bold-is-brilliant aural colors. The differences are that they venture frequently into the alt-country outback frequented by a band like Wilco. Also, every song on the album is extremely strong which is quite unlike Shins albums to me. With Shins, the hits are farther apart. With BOH it’s nearly non-stop.

From the first song (aptly titled “The First Song”) you get a huge dose of Ben Bridwell’s ever-present falsetto. He’s got a powerful, semi-southern country voice that sprawls nicely over the somewhat thickly spread music that the rest of the band plays. “Wicked Gil” is soars similarly, especially in the choruses. It also contains a few interesting sections that remind me more of Built to Spill’s mini-breaks. Indeed, those who like Doug Martsch are turned off by just one too many prog-chord turns in Built To Spill’s songs will probably like this occasional birdwalk.

“Our Swords” is anchored by an interesting digitally delayed bassline. My favorite song is “The Funeral” and is also available on the Subpop website for download. Sweltering and melodically pure, this track is just so powerful.

“Part One” is a sort of textural break, a slower track that really does sound like MMJ. This leads to the bass drum driving “The Great Salt Lake” contains great chiming choruses so thick you could cut them with a knife. And the hits just keep coming.

So, Pitchfork stole my thunder and lightning out from underneath this Band of Horses review. But so what. The BAND is great. I won’t say this is the best album we’ve gotten this year by a major indie, but it’s damn near close.

Members:
Ben Bridwell
Tim Meinig
Mat Brooke
Chris Early

Tracks:

The Funeral

Albums available on Itunes:

Everything All The Time (Subpop 2006)

Artist Website:

www.bandofhorses.com/

by Palebear