Is this a great year for albums or what? Seems for every article about the death of full-length releases, there are two or three new ones to make the media sound like they’re listening to MP3s with their heads lodged in their butts. My “2010 so far” list is nearly two top 10s in length, and now Band of Horses’ third album, Infinite Arms, has made it that much longer.
The Details
Led by singer-guitarist Ben Bridwell, BoH make coarse, fuzz-laden campfire music in the vein of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. But while Young’s oeuvre is patchwork Americana, these Horses are just a bunch of indie-pop nerds. Songs like “Laredo” and the deliciously sticky-sweet “Dilly” cross heartland rock with cosmic, Flaming Lips-style production, while Bridwell always gives the impression he still stutters and stumbles his way through beer blasts. But c’mon, anyone who can write a verse about Now and Laters, and render it as life itself within a measly pop tune, is too cool for words.
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