Album Review: Band of Horses “Cease to Begin”
Band of Horses Cease to Begin 2007. 4 Stars.
Over the holidays, I went online looking for bands I had overlooked in the past year and I came across Band of Horses, an indie rock outfit from South Carolina who have been breaking some pretty big waves over the past few years. Their sound is a delicate mixture of dream pop and folk rock traditions, creating both sprawling and inspiring anthems and intimate, laid back dirges, capturing the same drifter spirit found in My Morning Jacket and Okkervil River.
Cease to Begin opens with the stellar “Is there a Ghost” that manages to both haunt and enthrall with the use of a meager three verses. “Ode to LRC” and “Detlef Schrempf” are two of the other standouts from the disc’s first half, clearly demonstrating Ben Bridwell’s polished falsetto. The second half of the album is mostly comprised of comfortable and familiar sounding folk rock passages complete with lap steel guitar arrangements. As a whole, Cease to Begin is a wistful listening experience. While the album is rather short, clocking in at around 35 minutes, it shows just how refined and focused Band of Horses are in crafting their work.
The video for “Is There a Ghost”
February 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
[…] of my favorite tracks from Band of Horses‘ 2007’s Cease to Begin. I’ve had this in my head all bloody weekend, so I’m going to try and play it myself (I […]