Things Are Great
Heading into Band of Horses’ sixth album, frontman Ben Bridwell wanted to do things differently. He’d been hanging out with some younger musicians in his adopted home of Charleston, South Carolina, and liked their style. “They were making really beautiful sounding records in, like, a storage shack, basically,” he tells Apple Music. One in particular, Wolfgang Zimmerman, had sparked Bridwell’s imagination to the point that Bridwell found himself sneaking out to make demos with Zimmerman on the sly, away from the rest of the band. “It wasn’t a plot to overthrow the record,” Bridwell says. “But in the end, it did feel a bit like a mutiny.” The result is music that feels less like a departure from the band’s core sound than a reaffirmation of it: the anthemic choruses, the windswept grit, the mix of joy and melancholy.
Band of Horses’ sixth album unexpectedly delivers on all the qualities that defined their initial success: soaring emotions, crunchy guitars, and Ben Bridwell’s cotton-candy whine.
Things Are Great feels like the best Band of Horses album in years | Best Fit
The South Carolina band blend soaring melodies and bummed-out lyrics on their sixth full-length.
Arriving six years after 2016's Why Are You OK, Band of Horses' scrappy sixth album, Things Are Great, feels like something of a homecoming.
Their transition from Seattle folk rock outfit to South Carolinian alt pop heroes reflects Band of Horses’ sheer ambition and collective ability. With no shortage of either, the group’s sixth album finds them returning to their roots, swiftly usurping 2016’s largely subpar Why Are You OK.
Fans will likely be happy with 'Things Are Great', but this far into Band of Horses' career, they should be taking on new musical challenges or exploration.
Band of Horses 'Things Are Great' Album Review by Adam Williams. Their full-length drops on March 4, 2022 via BMG Records and DSPs