Just picked up the new album from Band of Horses this week called Infinite Arms. Having been a big fan of their first 2 albums I had built up a pretty high level of expectation. These expectations were raised when I caught a clip of one song 'NW Apt' off the album a few days prior to purchasing, so I was amped going into it (not always a good thing).
So I bought from JB Hifi and hurried back to the car to listen and was first greeted by a very low key song to open the album entitled 'Factory' which caught me a bit off guard as I was expecting a bit more oompf for the first song. Though 'Is there a ghost' was the opening track from Cease to Begin which started off slow but it certainly kicked in whereas Factory never gets momentum.
Moving on, the next 2 tracks are solid 'Compliments' (the single) and 'Laredo' then comes one of if not the best track 'Blue Beard' filled with cool melodies, still very chilled but has a classic BOH sound that is unmistakable. One of the beauties of this band is that when you hear their stuff you can't mistake them for anyone else.
From there the album keeps a very slow-medium pace, until Dilly which is a cool beach boys type country pop song. Then only at track 11 do we get to the kick @#!*% driving bass thumping NW Apt. The only song that raises the bar in terms of beats per minute and distorted guitar.
So like I said at the start, my hopes were up after Cease to Begin, which was pretty much flawless, so it was always gonna be hard to top that. Cease also had only 9 tracks (+ a less than 1 min track), Infinite Arms has 12, so if we were to shave off the 3 worst songs it does stack up better.
Unfortunately I don't think there is any song here that will really open them up in terms of singles. this being their major label debut I thought there would be something like that?
Anyway, in summary, too many slow songs, interest lacks in the 2nd half of the album, but enough here to keep me interested for a while. 3.5/5
Band of Horses will be playing the Powerstation on 3 August. Tickets on sale now!
Check out Blue Beard Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74OKIsePtgg
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