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Band Of Horses, a roots-rock band from Seattle fronted by Benjamin Bridwell
(whose reverb-soaked vocals are reminiscent of My Morning Jacket's Jim James), after
Carissa's Wierd disbanded.
Carissa's Wierd (with "weird" mispelled as "wierd") had released
Ugly But Honest - 1996-1999 (Brown, 2000),
You Should Be At Home Here (Brown, 2001),
Songs About Leaving (Sad Robot, 2002),
and I Before E (Sad Robot, 2004).
The melancholy dreamy melodic mid-tempo country-rock of
Everything All The Time (Subpop, 2006) stood out not only for the
carefully constructed compositions but also for the tinges and nuances that
turned each song into a unique stylistic statement, despite the obvious
references to the masters, notably
the catchy Wicked Gil, with decadent boogie rhythm a` la
Velvet Underground,
the anthemic jangling folk-rock of Weed Party,
the ethereal The First Song, an ode in the way of latter-day Pink Floyd,
the Bruce Springsteen-ian meditation Great Salt Lake,
the soulful elegy Monsters,
and especially the stately ballad The Funeral, a roots-rock equivalent of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven.
The short
Cease To Begin (Subpop, 2007), recorded after the departure of
guitarist Mat Brooke,
displayed the same class of the debut but sounded both inconsistent and
uninspired compared with that album. If
Is There a Ghost and
Ode to LRC
almost matched the debut's epos,
several songs were pure filler
or stabs at mainstream pop (the serenade No One's Gonna Love You).
The best ideas (The General Specific, a hybrid of Tamla Motown soul and
country-rock, and the whirlwind square-dance Islands on the Coast)
are not enough to lift the album from the sense of mediocrity.
This was probably a hurried album to capitalize
on the debut's success. It should have been an EP.
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(Translation by/ Tradotto da
Antonella Miggiano)
Band Of Horses, e` una roots-rock band proveniente da Seattle
capitanata da Benjamin Bridwell (le cui sonorit… vocali impregnate di
riverberi ricordano Jim James dei My Morning Jacket).
La melodica melanconia onirica mid-tempo country-rock di Everything
All The Time (Subpop, 2006) emerge non solo dall'accurata costruzione
compositiva ma anche per le sfumature e le tonalit… che portano ogni
pezzo verso un particolare impianto stilistico, malgrado i chiari
riferimento ai maestri, da notare l'effetto orecchiabile alla Wicked
Gil, con un ritmo boogie decadente alla Velvet Underground, lo
stridore 'antemico' folk-rock di Weed Party, l'eterea The First Song,
un'ode alla maniera degli ultimi Pink Floyd, la 'Springsteniana'
meditazione di Great Salt Lake, l'elegia sentimentale di Monster, e in
particolare la maestosa ballata The Funeral, un'equivalente versione
roots-rock di Stairway to Heaven dei Led Zeppelin.
Il breve Cease To Begin (Subpop, 2007), registrato dopo
l'allontanamento del chitarrista Mat Brooke, mostra la stessa classe
del disco d'esordio ma Š eseguito in modo disorganico e con poca
ispirazione rispetto al primo album. Se Is There a Ghost e Ode to LRC
ritrovano quasi il carattere epico del debutto, pi— di una canzone
rimane un puro riempitivo o un tentativo di seguire un certo
mainstream pop (la serenata No One's Gonna Love You). Le idee migliori
(The General Specific, un ibrido di Tamla Motown soul e country-rock
inseme, e la vorticosa 'quadriglia' di Islands on the Coast) non sono
ancora sufficienti per sollevare l'album da un certo senso di
mediocrit…. Un album probabilmente fatto in fretta per sfruttare il
successo del debutto.
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