Band of Horses new, live album Acoustic at the Ryman should sound like a branching off from the bands usual sound. It should sound like a progressive step forward, or an engaging inside look at the members concert personalities and stage presences. It should present a new angle towards the bands music and unique voice. It should do a lot of these things, and yet it falls short on every single one of them.
There is pure irony in a group like Band of Horses recording an acoustic album. It is like saying that Metallica is going to record a metal album or Chuck Close is going to do a collection of hyper-realist paintings. In other words, this whole idea reads as one big, So what?
It is not to say that the album isnt well done. The listener is treated to a collection of greatest hits, if you will. This is a compilation of Band of Horses stellar somber and haunting tracks, tracks that emerged into the mainstream public eye with unsettling lyrics like those from hit song The Funeral (2006): Im coming up only to hold you under / And coming up only to show youre wrong. Its pretty easy to see why acoustic seems like something pretty normal for this band. In fact, every song on the album sounds nearly identical to those recorded on previous albums. As great as it is for listeners in this day of hyper-manufactured pop zombies and auto-tuned boy bands, to know that a group can actually deliver beautiful live music should not come as a surprise given their success in the indie scene.
The majority of songs, save for Slow Cruel Hands of Time (2012) off of the bands second-latest release Mirage Rock (2012), are from albums of yesteryear. Sprinkled throughout are tracks from Band of Horses 2007 masterpiece the gloomy album Cease to Begin, which produced such popular hits as No Ones Gonna Love You, Detlef Schrempf and Marry Song. On their own albums the tracks are beautiful, and compiled together they should be a roiling triumph, yet listening to Acoustic at the Ryman feels like the mixed tape compilation of a very lovelorn and musically mature teenager. There is no commentary between tracks, nor do Ben Bridwell and Mat Brooke, the bands two co-founders, share funny stories or provide thought-provoking interludes. There is simply music, which is a lot less appealing stripped-down than one might expect.
A live album should not be impossible to execute. Bruce Springsteen has been doing it for years with great success. While it would be an unbelievable disservice to The Boss to compare Band of Horses to his years of brilliant artistry, his work stands here for comparisons sake to show what a real live album should be: wild, unpredictable, fun. Acoustic or slower tracks, anything off of Springsteens Nebraska (1982) for example, are never left out in the cold to fend for themselves on live recordings. They are given captivating epic stories that rival the grandeur of the songs themselves. Band of Horses does none of that.
Despite these faults, there still are several standout tracks on the album. Everythings Gonna be Undone (2012) and Older (2010) shine as faster, folksy gems. While much of Band of Horses work relies on a woodsy ambience reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, these two songs are more evocative of a Mumford and Sons-esque banjo-playing jamboree. Their pure dissimilitude from the rest of the album makes it worth a listen, and the evolution from the same tracks off earlier records shows hints of growth for the band.
However, the majority of the work on this album reads as lazy, or simply tired. The songs are beautiful but now, barely ten years old, Band of Horses has set out an album that indicates the band may have run out of steam. It is only the hope that fans of the bands work arent witnessing the musical funeral of a truly unique group any time soon, and that the band can revive itself and its image with innovation in the future.
