The Rock Blogger

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”

Last Tuesday, Pitchfork released their Top 50 Albums of 2007, naming Panda Bear’s psychedelic Person Pitch as the album of the year. While I thought the album was warm, trippy and evoked fond memories of stoned summers past, I honestly thought several other bands were more likely to take the top spot, like The National (#17), LCD Soundsystem (#2) or The Arcade Fire (#27???). Here is the full list:

50 Tinariwen - Aman Iman: Water Is Life
49 Dizzee Rascal - Maths + English
48 Robert Wyatt - Comicopera
47 Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
46 Marissa Nadler - Songs III: Bird on the Water
45 Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36
44 Les Savy Fav - Let’s Stay Friends
43 Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
42 Ghostface Killah - The Big Doe Rehab
41 Life Without Buildings - Live at the Annandale Hotel
40 Beirut - The Flying Club Cup / Lon Gisland EP
39 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
38 Wu-Tang Clan - 8 Diagrams
37 Grizzly Bear - Friend EP
36 Iron and Wine - The Shepherd’s Dog
35 Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
34 James Blackshaw - The Cloud Of Unknowing
33 King Khan & the Shrines - What Is?!
32 Sally Shapiro - Disco Romance
31 Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
30 Caribou - Andorra
29 Bon Iver, For Emma - Forever Ago
28 Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond
27 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
26 Various Artists - After Dark
25 The Tough Alliance - A New Chance / New Waves EP
24 Dan Deacon - Spiderman Of The Rings
23 Studio - Yearbook 1
22 Okkervil River - The Stage Names
21 Dirty Projectors - Rise Above
20 Liars - Liars
19 Feist - The Reminder
18 Kanye West - Graduation
17 The National - Boxer
16 Lil Wayne - Da Drought 3
15 Justice - †
14 Deerhunter - Cryptograms / Fluorescent Grey EP
13 Jay-Z - American Gangster
12 No Age - Weirdo Rippers
11 Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
10 Burial - Untrue
09 The Field - From Here We Go Sublime
08 Battles - Mirrored
07 Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
06 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
05 of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
04 Radiohead - In Rainbows
03 M.I.A. - Kala
02 LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver
01 Panda Bear - Person Pitch

On their list of The Best 100 Tracks of 2007, Pitchfork Media honored LCD Soundsystem’s terrific “All my Friends” from their LP Sound of Silver which was #16 on my 50 Best Albums of 2007 list. The award seemed fair, as the song does brilliantly capture singer James Murphy’s growing pains with its evocative song-writing, jittery piano lines, inspired chorus, and top-notch production. What do you think is the best song of 2007? Some of my nominees would be “Squalor Victoria” by The National, “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” by The Arcade Fire and “Suddenly its a Folk Song” by The Future of the Left”. Here is LCD: