4.5 Stars... Outstanding "debut" album

Band of Horses is a "new" band, in the sense that this is their debut album, but these guys have been around for quite a long time. Ben Bridwell and Matt Brooke, the main creative forces behind Band of Horses, were in a previous band, Carrisa's Weird, for many years, but that band never got anywhere.

My favorite album at the moment

It rocks, it rolls, it moves me. Almost every song here is a winner. "Monsters" is my favorite song. The singing is somewhat reminiscent of "My Morning Jacket", some people think they are a rip off of them, I don't think so. I think this Album stands on the merits of the good songs. This is one of my favorite albums at the moment. I like the more acoustic songs like the ending song "St. Augustine".

"album of the year" may be a little strong, but...

...I enjoy this album immensely. I first heard some hype about Band of Horses on Insound or something, and ordered their tour cd from Subpop. That cd has demo versions of 3 songs off the full-length, and 3 live songs. The demo versions definitely got me excited to hear the full-length, but in retrospect, I kinda like the rougher versions better in some ways. I think the lo-fi aesthetic really served the songs well. That being said, the full-length album didn't let me down at all. The product description is fairly accurate- Ben's voice is definitely reminiscent of Doug Martsch and Wayne Coyne, and if you like Built to Spill or Flaming Lips, I don't think this would disappoint. I'm not a huge fan of either of those bands; I think Band of Horses have their own thing going. Definitely not "alt-country," but he songs give a feeling of yearning for wide-open spaces. The feel is maybe more reminiscent of Neil Young, but with more of a pop sensibility. I would recommend this to most anyone who enjoys music. It's something I have to be in a particular mood for, and I guess my one complaint is that they don't stop and breathe too much on the album. Maybe because it's their first album- there's definitely a sense that they're trying to fit a lot of ideas into one record. That's a pretty small complaint. I think this is worth picking up for "The First Song" alone.