Review Summary: Why aren't you ok? I've always wanted to be A horse.
Band of Horses breed suburban chicanery with family life--porch, garage, lawn, and promenade--poppycocks, still musing the belief that the indie consensus, anent folk undertones and hip references, will somewhere along the line match their own; probably by virtue of all the 'ish' Americana entails. Therefore, it's not that important if the call signs Ben Bridwell pitches high, to entice you towards his honeyed web of nostalgia, include late grandpas 'n' mas, late dogs, late bears or late Laundromat meetings; they spin towards the chorus of "In A Drawer"--the stickiest of all present and along "Throw My Mess" (ok, plus the one with the troubled teen) the most 'country-ish'. What matters is the band's actual tracks (i.e., the manure), which provide the lowdown: the parcels and manuals of all the unrealised expectations of a debut that came ten years earlier, some formal invitations which have gradually become more casual, plus an ever growing figure that messes with their views on YouTube (a denominator, if it were). Bar the opener "Dull Times/The Moon", which is what "Us and Them" would have turned out like/had Waters been a yank, in
Why Are You Ok they[Ben] decided the harras needed less horsepower and more keys: less lousy distortion, less punch and presence behind the kits 'n' bass--in short, fewer neighs along his own. And while I'm not sure if being less 'rockish' is the approved remedy, it could consist the base for the most potent one. See, why not drop the suffixes completely, celebrate the ever mellowing devolution of his timbre, and gait (he performs three, and the fourth one will be in 4/4, so why not?) even closer to what he always wanted to do? Pop his self-titled debut... if not one titled
Thoroughbrid.
