Everybody Listen Up!
I must confess that Band of Horses are a band I've neglected since purchasing their debut back in 2006. It was an album I mostly enjoyed but found difficult to love. I can't really explain why. By chance, I stumbled onto their most recent album, 2022's Things Are Great, about a month ago and quickly fell for it. Every listen only adds to my belief that had I known of it, I'd have firmly placed in my top 10 albums of that year.
There's a surging, yearning quality to many of the songs, a quality that's elevated by Ben Bridwell's voice; supple one moment, crystalline the next. The opening track, 'Warning Signs' veers through a number of moods without ever feeling incoherent. Guitars chime and fuzz, vocals lean purposefully into an impactful lyric, whilst loud-soft dynamics convey a deeply felt ambivalence recognisable to anyone for whom keeping mental good health has been a struggle. The heavier qualities in the song - all cymbal wash and shoegaze introspection - sit tellingly alongside against the album's title; sometimes positive self-talk isn't quite enough.
In contrast, 'Crutch' has the chiming ring of James' 'Sometimes (Lester Piggot)' and the stop-start urgency of The Shins in full flight. Careful listening reveals some beautiful keyboard ornamentation. 'Tragedy of the Commons' sustains the mood but at a more moderate tempo with acoustic guitar adding emotive flourishes. Time signature changes are subtly deployed, again working to establish a mood of mental consternation and instability. And yet, the songs add a kind of grace to these challenging experiences. Things aren't great, but there's still an awareness that things could be a lot worse.
'In the Hard Times' is a strange beast, in that the juxtaposition of a keening, almost bluesy ballad and a genuinely pissed off lyric loaded with accusations of abandonment is like a distant spirit cousin of Dylan's 'Don't Think Twice, It's Alright', in which anger is transformed into something that beautifully defies its inspiration. And 'In Need Of Repair' takes a similarly transformative approach even further, where a sense of internal collapse and desperation finds form in a soaring chorus. This is perhaps the true core of the album; the act of transformation, of distilling the worst of things into their best possible form. The song themselves are acts of repair, of healing.
Is 'Aftermath' a love song? In a pained, almost subversive way, I think it is. Shot through with chaotic imagery - holding a baby falling down the stairs being a particularly shocking case in point - there's a pretty numbness that hovers over the mood, an almost drugged haze that's embellished with psychedelic whirls. But as always, there's a shift, in this carried by an increasing urgency in the drums, perhaps serving as the kind of self-willing needed to survive the most desperate of times.
And survival dovetails into the more strident gallop of 'Lights', in that 'getting over the worst shit ever' sounds more affirming than rueful. This is a driving song and a bloody good one. The whole album works a treat in the car, to be honest; lots of musical detail, words to ponder and choruses to sing. It's difficult not to feel good when the lights turn on. 'Ice Night We're Having' is a comparably brisk example of how to summon beauty from the most broken of things, and with lines like 'picking up the broken pieces of us', some utterly touching and heartfelt lyrics.
I'm really, really glad the universe sent this album my way. I don't have experiences with the chaos and despair that embodies most of the lyrics here, but like everyone, I've had my fair share of seriously fucked up moments. What I really value about this album is its refusal to wallow in the worst of things. It's an album of uplift, a gift from the most unlikely of places. Band of Horses has crafted a superb album that embodies Leonard Cohen's vision of the holy and the broken Halleluiah. And for that, I say Amen.
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