Cease to Begin

Cease to Begin
Label: Sub Pop
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Cease to Begin
There’s an easy inference to be drawn from some of Cease to Begin’s themes. “Marry Song,” “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands” and the two songs that meditate on “home, home, home” (“Islands on the Coast” and “Detlef Schrempf”) point to warm nostalgia, while the chorus of “No One’s Gonna Love You” (the sentence continues “more than I do”) indulges songwriter Ben Bridwell’s tendency toward unabashed romance. In other words, Cease to Begin could be seen as Band of Horses’ “settled” record, a sophomore disc that finds the group comfortably refining the Southern Gothic chamber-pop of their debut. That inference is incomplete, as the explosive and expansive bombast of album opener “Is There a Ghost” makes clear; the track is as memorable as it is overbearing, revealing a grandiose fire and lyrical restlessness that the group barely hinted at before. Likewise, the gritty, anthemic swagger of “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands” may stand as something of a shock to listeners expecting an album full of tunes identical to Everything All the Time. In fact, the rollicking, acoustics-on-the-front-porch groove of “The General Specific” and the hook-heavy roots rock of “Ode to LRC” are the only obvious sonic connections to BOH’s previous work. The divergent songs on Cease never seem less than cohesive, though. Thanks to Bridwell’s distinctive voice and Phil Ek’s outstanding production work, the album demonstrates a combination of artistic growth and sonic integrity that cements Band of Horses’ stature as one of this decade’s most noteworthy new groups.

This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2007.