Review: Band Of Horses – Infinite Arms

When Fleet Foxes came onto the scene back in 2008, they bore more than a passing resemblance to another soft rock band fronted by a grungy-looking beard: Band of Horses. There was enough room for both bands, though, and they’ve both done pretty well for themselves. Now bearded, flannel-clad bands from the Pacific Northwest making pretty, laid back music are a dime a dozen and it takes a little extra something to make one stand out from the rest. It’s like a defanged version of the grunge rock era. Band of Horses have changed their style a bit over their last few albums, but they haven’t necessarily evolved. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on how enamored you are with the drowsy, uncomplicated soft rock that they champion.

The grunge rock comparison doesn’t end with the flannel and beards. Band of Horses have been touring with Pearl Jam—frontman Ben Bridwell even did a pretty good cover of Temple of the Dog classic “Hunger Strike” as a stand-in for Chris Cornell, who was probably busy thinking up new ways to embarrass himself—and they have a lesson to learn from one of the preeminent bands of the grunge era. You see, Pearl Jam haven’t really changed since the ‘90s. They’ve just made a series of mostly interchangeable records and decided, bafflingly, to shill for Target after years of anti-establishment posturing. That’s not to say that they’ve been releasing bad music. They are nothing if not competent. But really, who cares anymore?

Infinite Arms is a competently-done album, and it has its high points. Album opener “Factory” is a sweeping, string-laden ballad and one of Band of Horse’s strongest songs to date. “Laredo” turns up the fuzz on the guitars and rocks surprisingly hard. It sounds almost like a lost Neil Young song. Most of the rest of the album falls flat, though, due to over-production and schmaltzy lyrics (“If there’s a God up in the air / Someone looking over everyone / At least you’ve got something to fall back on”). At their worst, some of the songs sound like something you’d hear on the radio at the dentist’s office while getting your teeth cleaned.

Band of Horses are talented, and they have some good songs in them underneath all that flannel and facial hair. They need to bring something different to the table, though, if they’re not going to fade into the crowd of bands out there that are using the same sensitive Pacific Northwesterner shtick. Over-produced soft rock ballads aren’t going to do it.

Band Of Horses:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last.fm

Like this post? Bookmark it!

Email to a friend

About the Author

Jeremy Clymer lives in Michigan with his wife and kid. He shoots his writings out into the ethers of the Internet in the hopes that someone will pick up on his transmissions and shower him with money and/or praise.

Email this Author | All posts by Jeremy Clymer

Comments are closed.