Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (2007)

Cease to Begin is the second album by Band of Horses. It's also my favourite album by them. Although, talking about them is a bit misleading in this situation. All of the original members of the band, apart from the lead singer Ben Bridwell left the band after the first album. Bridwell seems to be the person who writes the songs anyway, so you can't really hear the changing of the band that well on the album. Cease to Begin has a bit more acoustic elements on it than the debut album that was fairly straightforward indie rock album. I really like that tone down. I would say that the songs are a bit more maturely composed on this album. This was the first Band of Horses album I ever listened to, so that might also influence my judgement of this one being the best. I have a personal emotional attachment to many songs on this album which makes it more special.



I bought this album on vinyl at an end sale of a record shop in Helsinki and if I remember correctly, I got it quite cheap even if it was quite new at the time. It's quite sad that so many Helsinki record shops have closed down in the last ten years or so. It's a bit difficult to find certain records in Finland anymore. Fortunately the situation is a lot better here in London.

The whole first half of the album is really strong. Is There a Ghost opens up the album gently with echoey vocals and chiming electric guitars, but after about one minute the song really kicks up the overdriven guitars and massive drums. It's a great way to start the album with a bang. This song kind of feels like an intro with its growing intensity, so it feels like there's another start when this song switches to the second song Ode to LRC, which has a bit more groovy rhythm and more complex melody. The third song No One's Gonna Love You has made me really emotional back in the day. I think it hit me so strong since I was really in love but the relationship was just in the beginning and I wasn't too sure about what was going to happen yet. In reality, of course, this is a breakup song and as a breakup song, it doesn't really have the best message, since it's claiming that no-one else is going to love that other person as much from then on. Detlef Schrempf is a ballad with some amazing echoey guitars and vocals. The General Specific boosts the tempo up once more. This song is actually quite country-indluenced. Islands on the Coast sounds more like the first album in that the tempo is really fast and there are some fairly strong guitar riffs in the song. It comes close ot some post-rock bands of the time, except the structure is a basic pop song. Marry Song is also a country song with slow tempo. I would be interested to hear a different type of production of this song where instead of the current indie rock instruments we would hear proper acoustic instruments with fiddles and steel guitars. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands sounds like a sea shanty with tough overdriven electric guitars. It just has this great wavy waltz rhythm and melody that sounds like a pirate film. The album ends in a beautiful echoey ballad Window Blues.

The music video for No One's Gonna Love You is a classic 'on tour' music video where most of the video follows the band on stage, but there are sequences from outside the concert hall as well of the band brushing teeth, sleeping or surfing. It's not much of a music video when it comes to the storyline, but it's a great way to get a glimpse into what the band looks like.

Band of Horses is really tied to the late noughties and their later albums haven't really moved me in any way. Saying that, this and the third album especially still sound really good whenever they come up on my iPod when it's on shuffle or when I happen to hear these songs somewhere else. Even now, just listening to this album in its entirety again has been a real pleasure. Even if this is a product of its time, it has in some ways stood the time a lot better than some other bands from the same era.

Listen to the album on Spotify.