Band of Horses is, quite literally, a different band from the one that released Everything All the Time, with singer Ben Bridwell the only member that's carried over from that 2006 breakthrough to the group's new Infinite Arms. While their debut invited a downpour of comparisons to The Shins, The Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket and (retroactively) Fleet Foxes, Infinite Arms is less interested indie-rock's Neil Young revisionism than authentic, '70s folk- and country-rock. It's not the first album from an indie band to be likened to America, but it might be the first that some listeners could genuinely confuse for America. There are plenty of expectedly pretty numbers here, and a couple of perfunctory rockers that give the album some welcome momentum, but at this point, most listeners come to Band of Horses hoping for big, transcendent moments like "The Funeral," and there aren't any on Infinite Arms.
Also out this week:
* LCD Soundsystem's heavily hyped, awesomely titled, purportedly final and mostly irresistible album This Is Happening
* Brothers, the workmanlike Black Keys record some fans have probably been hoping for after the blues-rock band's sometimes overreaching side projects and collaborations with Danger Mouse
* Distant Relatives, the almost-too-good-to-be-true collaboration between Nas and Damian Marley
*The Archandroid, the debut record from soul-funk charmer Janelle Monae, one of the rare R&B singers given the active endorsement of the indie-rock press
* Compass, a new record from a "soul" singer more inexplicably embraced in indie circles, Jamie Lidell
* And new discs from The Depreciation Guild, Toots and the Maytals and Macy Gray.
