''Infinite Arms'' is the third album of

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Band of Horses Band of Horses is an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle, Washington. Led by singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes, the band's current line-up also includ ...

, released on May 18, 2010, on Brown Records,

Fat Possum Records Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...

and Columbia. Most of the album was recorded in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

with some overdubbing done in

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. The album was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

in the Best Alternative Album category."53rd Annual Grammy Awards nominees list"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

History

Shortly after the release of ''

Cease to Begin ''Cease to Begin'' is the second album by Band of Horses, released on October 9, 2007. This album solidified the band's sound and was a critical and commercial success, peaking at number 35 on the US Billboard 200 chart. The singles "Is There a G ...

'', keyboard player Ryan Monroe was made a permanent band member. The line-up was further expanded by the addition of

Tyler Ramsey Tyler Ramsey is an American singer-songwriter from Asheville, North Carolina, who is best known as the former lead guitarist for the band Band of Horses. Career Ramsey's eponymous debut album was released in 2005. His second album, ''A Long Dre ...

(guitar) and Bill Reynolds (bass). The new six piece band toured extensively between the releases of ''Cease to Begin'' and ''Infinite Arms'', although Rob Hampton left the band prior to the recording of ''Infinite Arms''. ''Infinite Arms'' was made without assistance or funding from a record label, the band having left

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

Ben Bridwell Benjamin Bridwell (born April 25, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. He is best known as the lead singer of the American rock band Band of Horses and a former member of the band Carissa's Wierd. Early life Br ...

explained why he eventually decided to have Brown Records, his own label, involved, "Because I did fund the record myself and (we) produced it ourselves, we just really wanted to make sure that we can have our hands in the pie."Simon Harper
Band of Horses interview
'' Clash'' - May 19, 2010 Several of the tracks were written by Ben Bridwell whilst staying in a cabin in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

near the Canada–US border. Bridwell explained why he had said that this was the "first" Band of Horses album, "It's the first time the line-up hasn't been this revolving door. With this record it's a real band that I'm part of. No one's going anywhere, everyone's contributing to the songwriting process..." The track "Blue Beard" features drums by Bridwell, the first time he has played drums on a record since he was in Carissa's Wierd, Bridwell explained, "I didn’t even mean to be playing drums on that song. We all took a stab at it. The song wasn’t developing right. I was the last one to go for it and it ended up being the one." "Evening Kitchen" was written by guitarist Tyler Ramsey and features him sharing lead vocals with Bridwell, while "Older" is written and sung by keyboard player Ryan Monroe. The first single taken from the album is "Compliments" and its official music video was presented on the band's website in April 2010.

Critical reception

Reviews of the album have been generally favourable, it has an overall rating of 69 out of 100 from 31 reviews, on the

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

website. '' Q'' magazine gave ''Infinite Arms'' a 4/5 rating and described it as "The next Great Americana Album." They noted the influence of

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

and drew parallels with "The Great American Novel" in literature. ''Q'' concluded by saying that, "For all the restlessness of the creative process...this is a strangely domestic affair."

Commercial performance

''Infinite Arms'' proved a major international success for Band of Horses, performing well in charts in Europe, Australasia and North America, reaching the top 10 in the US, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Norway and Sweden. The album sold 73,000 units in first three weeks in United States. As of September 2012, the album has sold 202,000 copies in United States.

Track listing

Personnel

*Benjamin Bridwell - vocals, guitars, drums, sounds, memotron *Creighton Barret - drums, thunderdrum, percussion *Ryan Monroe - keyboards, vocals, percussion, guitar *Bill Reynolds - bass, tambourine, guitar, percussion, sounds *Tyler Ramsey - guitar, vocals, percussion, keyboards, piano, theremin ;Guest musicians *Jay Widenhouse - trumpet on "Factory" *Dylan Huber - trumpet #2 on "Factory" *Dave Wilkens - trombone on "Factory" *Clint Fore - tuba on "Factory" *Lauren Brown - strings on "Factory" ;Production *Band of Horses - production *Phil Ek - additional production *Dave Sardy - mixing

Charts

References

External links

Band of Horses official website
{{Authority control 2010 albums Band of Horses albums Albums produced by Phil Ek Fat Possum Records albums Columbia Records albums