Filed under: Sweet Releases | Tags: Band Of Horses, homecoming, indie, indie rock, Infinite Arms, new release
by Brad MacDonald
“It’s temporary, this place I’m in,” Ben Bridwell insists, as if singing the words to convince himself of the ephemerality of his own situation on Infinite Arms’ opening track, “Factory.” The track finds Band of Horses’ lead songwriter contemplating the myriad, masked signifiers of hotel loneliness that remind, rather than dull, this sensation. The line comes off more like a plea than a statement of fact. For an album so fully devoted to the concept of home, Bridwell sets the table by placing the word in stark relief, opening the album as far away from home as possible: in an empty, sterile, cheap recreation of it. With the mass-produced hotel environment of “Factory” as a starting point and some distant, warm hearth clearly an ultimate destination, the real joy is in the journey. The clarity of vision that follows makes Infinite Arms the most cohesive and impressive release to date for Band of Horses.
After carving out a distinctly northwestern sound for their debut release, Everything All the Time, Band of Horses left the clanging guitars and reverb-drenched vocals of Seattle to return back east, recording the follow-up that would become Cease to Begin in North Carolina and incorporating many of the country and Americana elements of Bridwell’s native South Carolina. If Band of Horses’ debut was northwestern indie rock with touches of country, Cease to Begin flipped those proportions. In this sense, Infinite Arms is of a piece with Cease to Begin, continuing to emphasize that musical aesthetic while reinforcing it thematically in a way that the band had not previously managed.
Read about the songs after the break…
The songwriting on the album positively excels (you can still hear the album in its entirety at myspace.com/bandofhorses). The sweet iced tea harmonies of “Older” are the most refreshing you’ll find on an indie record this year, while “On My Way Back Home” recalls a more ramshackle distillation of the pastoral qualities of Fleet Foxes.
Elsewhere, the lyrical emphasis on home pervades Infinite Arms, ironically giving it a constant feel of motion, rather than stagnation. Imagery hints at the simple life: a DIY log cabin, the daily burnoff of morning fog, and a faithful canine all inhabit “Compliments,” while the wake-up calls of birds catch the notice of the narrator at dawn and are mirrored in the domino-cascade of shimmering harmonies in “Infinite Arms.” Both delivery and context, however, reveal such imagery to exist only as a memory or as an artifact of a dream.
Bridwell hardly seems to employ such devices to suggest that home exists only as an intangible idea, but rather that such ideas operate as indelible mental beacons to guide one home. “For Annabelle,” so named for Bridwell’s newborn daughter, takes comfort in shortcuts across fields and stones stuck in shoes, while on “Blue Beard,” “any normal life will do.” The comfort in returning home and the drive to do so, however, is perhaps best accomplished on album closer (and standout track) “Neighbor.” The narrator invokes small-town familiarity (“If Bartles & Jaymes didn’t need no first names, we could live by our own laws and favors.”) and the strength of family bonds (“There’s a light on the porch here for someone.”), a timeless reminder of those who are there without question, without issue, without fail. The song’s majestic crescendo of guitars revels in this plain truth, and it should.
In a time where it almost seems like an indie rock faux pas if you’re not singing about alienation, Band of Horses are creating songs about the earnest care that it takes to build memories, families, and homes. They employ concepts of loneliness and isolation as a means of juxtaposing one reality against another, but they don’t wear it as a fashionable aesthetic like so many other bands do (they seem more suited to flannel, anyway). As a result, they’ve crafted their best record yet. And that’s something they can take home with them.
Listen to those songs and more at: www.myspace.com/bandofhorses and tell us what you think in the comments below!
Rating: 9.0 / 10.0
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wait, new member of indiegasm? originalssss where are youuuuu
Comment by katherine eleanor obv! August 22, 2010 @ 4:12 am