Band of Horses: Everything All the Time

Band of Horses: Everything All the Time

2006

Sub Pop Records

Format I Own it On: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. The First Song  2. Wicked Gil  3. Our Swords  4. The Funeral  5. Part One  6. The Great Salt Lake  7. Weed Party  8. I Go to the Barn Because I Like The  9. Monsters  10. St. Augustine

Whew...it seems like I've been discussing nothing but punk and hardcore albums for a couple of months straight now...So what's a better way to come down than the debut album by the laid-back indie-country rockers the Band of Horses.

I can still remembering hearing these guys for the first time. I bought their album  because, well...it was on sale for $5.00 and I'm generally a big fan of Sub Pop releases...When I first put this on I was kind of put off by how much it sounds like an amalgamation of My Morning Jacket and the Shins. Now, this was in the days before ripping off My Morning Jacket really took off, so it was really shocking to hear at the time... The deep valleys of reverb,  high yowling vocals...it sounded like classic rock as heard in the next room... But I stuck with their albums and soon learned to love this band too...

They don't have the flights of weirdness or the endless jamming of My Morning Jacket, or the sense of irony and intelligence of the Shins... Musically, they're a big warm fuzzy sweater...Comforting in the same way as your favorite well-worn, easy-going 70's country rock album.

A lot of people point to this as the band's best album. Hell, there's also a popular opinion that it's their only good album...but I don't quite agree...It still feels like they're searching a bit,  but  when they find it...My God! 

The highlights are numerous...the catchy indie-rock of "Wicked Gil," the grand warmth of "The Great Salt Lake" and the catchy "Weed Party." It's such a perfect blend of 90's alt rock and 70's album rock that you can't help but fall in love with it...

The only tracks I'm not wild about are the overly slow and mawkish "Part One" and "St. Augustine."



I also have to address "The Funeral." Man, I'm so sick of this song...Every time I turn on the TV and there's a "funeral episode" it's mandatory for some reason to play "The Funeral."  It now gives me the same queasy feeling that I get whenever I hear the similarly overused "What a Wonderful World." I mean, it's just so damn...literal! It seems like they'd get a better effect by using a song that doesn't  scream "Look! Funeral!" Like maybe something that has a more funereal tone but doesn't literally say it... Now when I hear that famous tinkly guitar line I kind of groan...It's odd too, because I can recall originally hearing this song and enjoying it... And I must have heard "Wicked Gil" just as many times as I've heard "The Funeral" but I'm not even remotely sick of that song...huh.

But other than that, this is a very enjoyable record...I don't quite hold the popular belief that this is the band's best album (it's maybe my third favorite) but that isn't a knock on the quality of this record, it speaks more of the high quality of their later output...But this is probably the most indie-rock sounding of their albums so I can see how someone who is into indie-rock could enjoy this over the more overt classic-rock touches of their subsequent albums...Either way...check it out...

So let's listen to  "Wicked Gil" by Band of Horses...Enjoy...