Band of Horses: Track by Track Cease to Begin

While everyone has been held up with In Rainbows, I have been rocking the new Band of Horses. It is undoubtedly a different cd than Everything All the Time. Here is a track by track analysis.

The first song "Is There a Ghost" blasts out of the gates at full speed. Starting off ghostly slow, ITAG primes up and finally explodes at about the one minute mark. One of the strongest tracks on the album.

The second song "Ode to LCR" is another rocker that resembles a dab of Jane's Addiction, but much prettier. Cease is surprisingly quite a blissful album with lines in Ode such as "The world is such a beautiful place."

The next song "No One's Gonna Love You" is one of the weaker songs because of the lyrics. Once again I was surprised at lyrics like "No One is ever gonna love you more than I do" and "anything to make you smile." However, I really do like this song; it was just surprising.

Named after a Supersonics basketball player, Detlef Schrempf is the last of the somewhat ballads. It too is one of the weaker tracks, but good nonetheless.

"The General Specific" is raging reedic good. Break a bowl and mix one part Beach Boys and two parts Alt-Country and wa-la, you have General Specific. This is possibly the best track on the album.

"Lambs on the Lam (in the City)." Weighing in at a whopping 0.50 seconds, "Lambs" is a throw away. I understand transitions, but come on guys when you only have a ten track alum 1/10 is a big deal. Argggg.

"Islands on the Coast" is another rocker. Very solid song. "Islands" sounds more like the last album maybe than any other.

"Marry Song" is a beautiful harmonizing track. Lead by a keyboard, "Marry" almost sounds like a long lost Uncle Tupelo B -Side, almost like "Sin City." Definitely rootsy. Great song.

"Cigarettes Wedding Bands" is a staple Band of Horses tune. Bridwell's haunting voices meshes well with the mid-tempoed reverbed guitar that sails distorted throughout the entire song.

"Window Blues" brings back the ole' 5-String. Its good to hear a banjo again. "Window Blues" is a slower, swaying track that does not lack in beauty. Lyrically speaking, WB is probably the strongest form of songwriting on the album.

Love the rootsy numbers as well as the rockers. Wonderful album.