•
Rating: Shot straight to the top of my personal chart of the "Best Albums of 2006", this "Everything All The Time", the debut album by "Band Of Horses", is simply an excellent album, where the verb of American guitar-driven indie rock is conjugated according to the best standards, destined to remain in your CD player for a long time.
Immersed in a suspended atmosphere, the beauty that arises from the simplicity of the compositions is sometimes truly disarming: epic and melancholic, Benjamin Bridwell (the main lyricist and lead vocalist) and Mat Brooke (both former members of Carissa's Wierd, also seen around with Iron & Wine) have managed to build an alchemy in which the delicate balance of the parts is happily achieved. They raise their voice, but do not shout. They whisper, but do not mumble. They languish, but do not sadden. In short, this album has the cathartic power of taking away all the tensions accumulated during the day like a calm river.
Ethereal, undoubtedly, but by no means diaphanous: it leaves rich sediments in our consciousness. A classic album to listen to in the confines of one's den or nonetheless estranged from the world, alone with one's woes, it's also one of the few albums recently released that features more peaks than an alpine arc. It's true that it doesn't add anything new to the discourse of less oblique indie, but who cares! Composed of 10 arrows all aimed at our hearts, all very solid, all endowed with a life of their own, the only critique that could initially be made is perhaps in Bridwell's "slacker" singing: sometimes it's really difficult to discern the words of the otherwise distinctive lyrics. A work that never loses its edge thanks to the skillful alternation of more upbeat tracks ("Wicked Gil", "Weed Party", "Our Swords", "The Great Salt Lake") with languid down-tempo ("The First Song", "The Funeral", "Monsters"), it leaves you satisfied and never prone to hit the skip button on the CD player.
In general, the compositions are built on layers of guitar arpeggios (both electric and acoustic), usually drowned in reverberations of slowly strummed chords. The rhythm section is solid, never overdoing it. The amalgamation of elements creates a very cohesive sound, with a rich alternation of high and low modulations, bringing all the tracks to a dimension at once intimate, yet open to broader spaces, typically anthemic, with a country-folk undertone; any electronic contamination abolished.
Undoubtedly, it's a work in the line of somewhat overused sounds, but when a band manages to pull out a ballad like "St. Augustine", all can be forgiven.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Wicked Gil (02:57)
Hey do you really know
Hate you because
Go tippy toe
And shut off the world
Shut off to all, you ghost
I barely told a lie
And waited to reply
Now go for a while
Shut off the world
Shut off to all
I'm yours
I'm yours
Helping evil people to say things they should
And say once before
I know evil people who say things
They don't know, oh
I begged Gil really, why
Stay through the night
I'm here for a while
Shut off to the world
Shut off to all
I'm yours
I'm yours
Helping evil people to say things they should
And say once before
I know evil people will say things
They don't know
Oh why do I even care
It's nothing now, oh
03 Our Swords (02:26)
Out on the wall sounds of banging is constant coming from your head
And desperate the calls came and ringing from those wanna wring your neck
Wring your neck
Open your mouth sounds of breathing found it spilling from your face
Best to be dim to the humble of traffic stepping on your name
Count on us all falling on our own swords tonight
And chilling walk home down the portions roads there leading straight to your place
And look like the tin can with swallows the kitchen plugging up your space
Count on us all stepping on our own toes tonight
Count on us all stepping on our own toes
Count on us all falling on our own swords tonight
04 The Funeral (05:22)
I’m coming up only to hold you under
I’m coming up only to show you wrong
And to know you is hard and we wonder
To know you all wrong we were
Ooo Ooo
Really too late to call so we wait for
Morning to wake you is all we got
To know me as hardly golden
To know me all wrong they were
And every occasion I will be ready for the funeral
And every occasion once more is called the funeral
Every occasion I am ready for the funeral
And every occasion one brilliant day funeral
I am coming up only to show you down for it
I am coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside
The dead leaves, they are alive
For they don’t have trees to hang their hearts
Ooo Ooo
And every occasion I will be ready for the funeral
And every occasion once more is called the funeral
And every occasion I am ready for the funeral
And every occasion one brilliant day funeral
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By TheVoice84
Band of Horses know few things but know how to do them perfectly.
'The Funeral' is an excellent pop-rock song with Bridwell's enchanting voice soaring in the air.
