Band of Horses - Why Are You OK Album Review
Five albums in a decade is a pretty good batting average, but I'm always a little cautious when an album is described as a "return to form". It's with that attitude that I approached Band Of Horses' new record Why Are You Ok. I've rarely been disappointed with the output of Ben Bridwell's band, which has continually produced thought-provoking, occasionally explosive moments of aural bliss. If revisiting the predominantly quiet grandeur of 2010's Infinite Arms is considered the best that Band of Horses can offer, then perhaps Why Are You Ok is a triumph of sorts. Personally though, I found it a very difficult album to love.
As a record Why Are You Ok is perfectly inoffensive, but perhaps that's part of my problem, there are far too few moments where the band actually feels energised. Many of these songs feel lethargic and caught in a suburban slumber. It's also rare that an album clocking in at just shy of fifty minutes feels like it got lost somewhere in its own plodding and meandering songs. That's certainly the case here, and when one of the high points is called 'In A Drawer', you realise quite quickly that these songs are focusing on the minutia of a pretty contented life, rather than a grander theme. It's an album that could probably lose ten minutes along the way and it would greatly benefit: not in culling the number of songs, rather pulling into focus some of the dreamy moments where brevity would be a blessing.
That's also the frustrating thing, there is a genuinely good album hiding in here somewhere. On the opening cut which spans seven minutes and effectively stitches two disparate songs together ('Dull Times/The Moon') Bridwell reminds the listener that "home is where the heart is". If that's the case, then why do so many of these songs sound devoid of warmth and homeliness? It may sound lazy, but I just found that the opening song title said it all really, dull.
Continue reading: Band of Horses - Why Are You OK Album Review
Songs From The Shipyards is the group's third release within a year, and was initially a soundtrack to a film documenting their local North East England's shipbuilding industry history. Andrew Lockwood took this one on, and found a band in the form of their life seven albums into their career: "The album, as you might expect, is full of character and love" he wrote. "The songs are performed with great care and attention and each note stirs the emotions as it recounts a slice of Shipbuilding history. Regardless of whether you have seen the accompanying film this set of songs works wonderfully well and once again shows what a prodigious and prolific talent 
