Things Are Great with Band of Horses

A return to greatness for Ben Bridwell & co.

Fair use

In one’s life, there are those rare albums that come along at just the right time.

Although it has been nearly six years since their last release, Band of Horses’ sixth studio album, Things Are Great, is one such album that recently arrived, precisely when we needed it.

Remarkably, the songs presented here were written before the pandemic, though you’d swear that wasn’t the case, as this sounds like an album purposely made for the unbalanced times we’re living through today.

From singing about how we “can’t do all the things that we used to do, and it sucks” to “sitting in my usual chair, feeling the walls around me close in, I’m in a state of disrepair, and trying to make it till the morning,” singer/songwriter Ben Bridwell expertly harnesses one sentiment after another to impeccably describe the unprecedented feelings so many of us have grappled with, however unwillingly, for the past two-plus years.

Some key players in Band of Horses’ lineup have changed in the years since thei…