Band of Horses "Infinite Arms" [2010]

It's been suggested that the unfathomable sluggishness of a plethora of musical releases by beard-rockers of the late-Aughts/early-Teens is a direct result of far-stronger marijuana than ever existed in society previously. If so, I guess it's nice to know someone's having fun (but it ain't me, not as I'm listening to "Infinite Arms"). Nothing if not of their time, Band of Horses join a seemingly endless stream of feckless, spoiled groups who need to economize their track recording usage about as often as they take a clipper to their chin hairs. And because there's no tension in the music, there's nothing here but campfire wallpaper and concert venues with rich kids politely yawning through their noses. The tame sing-songy tracks on "Infinite Arms" in the countrified hirsute get-up brings to mind the Brady Bunch boys as Hasidic Jews from the South -- but even that description would imply music with more snap and flavor than this series of hickory-smoked puff pastries. The only way Band of Horses is aggressive about anything is in the on-the-nose everyday banalities in their song lyrics, which sound as if they had been lifted straight from the journal of the least interesting dudes in the world. But I bet they can't even lay claim to being something that profound.