Most Popular
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Swingtown Local swingers think life is a bowl of cherries, but Duncanville wants to spit out the Pit
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Un-Super Size Me: One Week of Eating Local One man’s attempt at slow food living in the Dallas metroplex
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Toll You So The Trinity River Project should be floating right along. Instead it's sinking under the weight of its own folly.
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Six Pac The Cowboys are counting on NFL outlaw Pacman Jones to pop the top on their sixth Super Bowl.
Blogs
Worst. Talented. Team. Ever.
Sun Oct 12, 7:07 PM
With Georgina Chapman, But Without Trash Bags, Like Project Runway
Sun Oct 12, 10:51 AM
Last Night: The Roots, Gym Class Heroes And Estelle At The Palladium Ballroom
Sun Oct 12, 6:05 PM
Last Night: The Walkmen At House Of Blues’ Pontiac Garage
Sun Oct 12, 4:03 PM
Say It Ain’t So, Joe
Sun Oct 12, 9:00 PM
Scenes from the Shootout
Sat Oct 11, 6:56 PM
National Features >
Village Voice
The Book of Sarah
Subjected to the light of day, Sarah Palin doesn't look like a maverick at all.
By Wayne Barrett
SF Weekly
Building Overtime
Exposing a construction-site scam only a San Francisco cop could love.
By Joe Eskenazi
Houston Press
Don't Nobody Cry
Ronald Taylor is one of perhaps hundreds of innocent people Harris County has put in prison.
By Randall Patterson
Westword
Open Secrets
Sloppy U.S. government paperwork is putting the lives of asylum seekers at risk.
By Lisa Rab
Band of Horses
Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)
By Michael Roberts
Published on October 18, 2007
The music on 2006's Everything All the Time, Band of Horses' breakthrough CD, could serve as the soundtrack for the originality versus inspiration debate. There was nothing novel about the disc, with most ditties overtly recalling assorted expressionistic, guitar-driven predecessors. Yet the tunes were so passionately performed that they frequently made freshness and innovation seem beside the point.
The tension between these elements plays out to slightly lesser effect on Cease, for reasons that are tough to quantify. Despite the departure of songwriter Mat Brooke, Ben Bridwell-warbled tracks such as the driving "Is There a Ghost" and the lovely air inexplicably dubbed "Detlef Schrempf" represent solid stuff. Equally strong is "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands," which integrates rootsy sensibilities with aggressive riffology. But lyrics such as "The world is such a wonderful place" (from "Ode to LRC") don't drip with insight, and the sonic familiarity of "Marry Song" and "Window Blues" proves to be a limitation, not a revelation.
Cease is catchy, tuneful and sincere, but a bit minor. It could have used more Horse power.
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