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Album Details
- Artist: Band Of Horses
- Album: Everything All The Time
- Label: Sub Pop
- Year of Release: 2006
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: mschmitt on 2006-12-04
Media
RecommendSeattle two-piece Band of Horses have received a lot of attention for their debut release with Sup Pop, and for fairly good reasons. The album is very soft, haunting, and beautiful. Carefully crafted melodies shape songs that resemble lullabies, and the lone voice of singer Ben Bridwell. Also, the duo sport more than their share of instruments, including banjo, piano, ebow, and pedal steel. Adding those into the mix, songs become candy for the ear not used to hearing say a banjo in an indie album. Band of Horses melds a country attitude and sound into indie, much in the same way labelmates The Elected and Iron and Wine do. "Everything All The Time" is a good slow-burner, an album to pop in and chill to. Exquisite and intricate melodies wrap around softly haunting lyrics that live up to the hype of the band. Expect to hear more, both from the band and from the people cheering them on.
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on 2011-02-21 CharlesMartel Said:
It is always hard to come up with a sound that is at the same time worth listening to and truly original. Band of Horses have managed the former without achieving the latter, but then they may never have set out to do so. I am not overly familiar with the work of My Morning Jacket, but what I have heard suggests that they were a major influence on Band of Horses' debut album, "Everything All the Time."
That in itself is not a bad thing. Some of the greatest sounds of the modern era have been lifted from the template set by those who went before. Arising out of a band with the superbly daft name of Clarissa's Weird, Band of Horses manage to bring a pleasant on the ear indie rock meets jangle pop sound to the table with this offering. The first thing you notice is the distinctive voice of Ben Bridwell, but thereafter, once you have got over his somewhat strained vocal delivery you begin to detect some interesting traits.
For a start, the tracks generally sound like they were written for acoustic guitars but are played on electric ones. There is a mixture of excellent must-hear tracks with a few pieces of filler, but that is not uncommon. Many bands struggle to get a single must-hear track on an album. For that Band of Horses deserve some kudos.
Opening with the originally named "The First Song" , the band immediately sets out its stall. This is a grandiose pop song which in some ways presages the stand out track on the album, the minor hit "The Funeral ". This is a track which is sufficient to make you wait with growing anticipation to hear and ensures you stop what you are doing to take in the soaring melody as Bridwell pains:
At every occasion
"I'll be ready for the funeral"
The other great track here is "The Great Salt Lake" , another pop song along the lines of " The First Song" but with a slightly more restrained pop ambience than either of the two aforementioned tracks.
Sadly, the rest of the album does not match those three pinnacles. At times the band lapse into the standard second-division indie pop formula of sound over quality. On tracks like " Wicked Gil" and " St Augustine" , Bridwell's voice fails to match the tone and feeling of the music while on "Our Swords" the lyrics themselves are rather poor.
In the end, the album comes across as one which displays a potential for greater things without actually delivering them. The notable tracks are not enough to pull this album away from the struggling morass of competitors for our cash. Too many indie outfits today fail to realise that there are too many of them all sharing a small space within a number of distinctive niches in the Indie firmament. Band of Horses have not, with "Everything All the Time", cut themselves out either a dominant position within one of those niches, or carved out for themselves a separate or unique space which they can truly call their own. As a result this is an album which is long on promise but rather comes up short when it comes to delivering on it.
Rating: 6/10
on 2008-08-18 hstisgod Said:
might have to try this... o wait its the 21st century...brb.
Sounds like a red headed step child of Janes Addiction, Angels and Airwaves, and The Blue Scene, a band probably not even together anymore.
I'm listening to their 2007 releases..but Im trying to load Everything All The Time. Ah here go. The Funeral is what I began with, its soft and melodic, but surely going somewhere, and yes as I soon as I began that typing it went somewhere. It just has a unique branding. I'm enjoying. Thanks for the heads up.
Not Rated
on 2008-08-18 kev_stev Said:
I never really loved this album until recently. Now I'm pretty sure it's near flawless and miles ahead of their follow-up.
Rating: 9/10
on 2008-06-12 dscanland Said:
I like Band of Horses but I really think they are over-rated.
Not Rated
on 2008-06-12 kev_stev Said:
"The Funeral" is so damn beautiful. Ever since I heard a piece of it on that Ford commercial I was dying to know what song it was, then I found out it was by Band of Horses so I had to get this album immediately.
Rating: 9/10
