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Band of Horses performs "The Funeral"

The first impression isn’t always right. Mine: Are Jim James and My Morning Jacket going to sue these guys or what? Band of Horses initially seemed a straight ripoff of the Jacket’s reverb-drenched, back-porch, widescreen sound. Like most good things, however, I found that the more I got to know it, the more I saw its uniqueness. Additionally, here’s a case of wait and ultimately find reward. Band of Horses’ pedigree traces to the Seattle of the mid 1990s, but not from the typical grouping of flannel and flange guitar bands. Ben Bridwell and Matt Brooke were at the core of Carrisa’s Weird, a feted folk-pop group with a purposely misspelled name. That band’s demise led to what would become Band of Horses. The more I let singer/guitarist Ben Bridwell’s dreamy pastoral anthems seep in, the more Everything All the Time proved its splendorous power. Everything bears the timeless rock earmarks of warm reverb, with the feel of a richly detailed hymnal that captures life gone awry (“Great Salt Lake”), wistful sincerity (“The Funeral”) and half-dreamt recollections (“St. Augustine”). The playing here is laid-back, understated and note-perfect, while Bridwell’s voice carries across these songs, from the twangy whispers of “I Go to the Barn Because” to the blissful rock of “Weed Party,” like a boundless ocean.