Things Are Great by Band of Horses

Things Are Great, Band of Horses' sixth album, arrived on BMG on March 4, 2022, and the title reads like a dare given what it took to get here. Tyler Ramsey and Bill Reynolds, the guitarist and bassist who'd anchored the band for a decade, were fired in 2017, so Ben Bridwell cut these songs with new bassist Matt Gentling, guitarist Ian MacDougall and longtime drummer Creighton Barrett. MacDougall was gone two months before release, replaced by Brett Nash. The production had its own detour: Grandaddy's Jason Lytle and Dave Fridmann got it started, then Bridwell and Wolfgang Zimmerman reworked it.

What survived all that is big, bruised, reverb-soaked rock, Bridwell's high, keening voice riding over guitars that ache and soar. "Crutch", "In Need of Repair" and "Lights" went out ahead of it, "Warning Signs" found its way onto the countdowns, and plenty of critics called it a return to form and their best record in over a decade.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.