Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time (2006)
If you’re looking for an Americana-tinged indie rock fix you can never go wrong with Band of Horses. Although all three of their albums are superb it’s Everything All The Time that is closest to my heart, it seems more immediate and has more intent than Cease To Begin and sounds warmer than Infinite Arms. They seem to draw a lot of influences here on this album from folk and country music, as well as country rock and folk rock from the 60’s and 70’s such as The Band and Neil Young, and infuse these influences into their indie rock/Americana sound. I guess the aim of the band on this album is to create simple, timeless music that not only invokes the past but also sounds completely fresh and modern. They keep things simple and concentrate on good songwriting rather than experimenting, the music simply serves as a tight backing for frontman Ben Bridwell’s supurb reverb-soaked voice.
The highlight of the album has to be the epic and moving ballad ‘The Funeral’, which features a fine emotional vocal performance from Ben. This is the song that really makes the album for me. But the lively and uplifting ‘The Great Salt Lake’ and ‘Weed Party’ really make this a special album, with the latter basically being about smoking weed. It’s this kind of simplicity makes this album, and indeed their other two albums, easy for people to relate to. Band of Horses are often compared to My Morning Jacket mostly due to Ben Bridwell and Jim James’ vocal similarities. But Band of Horses take a simpler but just as effective approach to music than My Morning Jacket and it certainly pays off on this album.
Recommended Songs: ‘The Funeral’, ‘The Great Salt Lake’, ‘Weed Party’
Bark Psychosis - Hex (1994)
Often labelled by many as one of the first post-rock albums. Although the roots of post-rock date back further it is very difficult to draw the line where post-rock really started, or even what post-rock really is, but this album has certainly played a big part in refining post-rock and contributing to its growth in popularity throughout the 90’s. But please note that this album sounds a good bit different from the likes of Explosions in the Sky and God is an Astronaut. The album features vocals and proper songs and the music does not build and build to crescendos on every song, but the key link here is the use of rock instrumentation to create ambient music. Piano, strings and even some brass are sometimes used to heighten the mood. This is a great album to listen to really late at night and the sense of late night isolation that this album invokes resounds brilliantly, the opening track ‘The Loom’ sets this late-night mood rather superbly. The atmospheric album cover also adds to this feel and complements the music really well.
This album requires some patience and concentration to really appreciate. The instrumentation can be quite sparse at times and there is also a great use of repetition on some songs, especially the ambient closing track ‘Pendulum Man’. For best results listen to on a good pair of headphones, really late at night in a dimly-lit room, with weed optional.
Recommended Songs: ‘The Loom’, ‘A Street Scene’, ‘Eyes & Smiles’