Brown Horse return with their third album Total Dive. Their strongest and most grounded work to date, Total Dive showcases a new level of skill and assurance in the Norwich, UK band’s thoughtful lyricism and musicality. Leaning away from the playfulness and eclecticism of their previous works, Total Dive sees Brown Horse step forward into the darkness with a cautious optimism. As they move confidently between searing noise and delicate reflection, they take time to note the beauty and agony of the mundane; the death rattle of a vending machine, headlights flashing in the eyes of a road-killed fox, the heather- pink of a winter sky.
The new album is the clearest expression yet of Brown Horse’s unique sound: somewhere between the stark country rock of Uncle Tupelo, the raw intimacy of early Cat Power, and the haunted landscapes of Magnolia Electric Co., while embracing the self-possessed noisiness of alt-rock trailblazers like Built to Spill and The Breeders. Bolstered by the playing of Norwich drummer Ben Rodwell and the vocal harmonies of Leeds-based musician Neve Cariad, Total Dive is the sound of a band coming fully into their own. These are songs inhabited by wide Norfolk skies, thousands of shared miles on the road, the noise of heartbreak and humor, and the echoing silence of long hours spent in strange in-between places.
The new album is the clearest expression yet of Brown Horse’s unique sound: somewhere between the stark country rock of Uncle Tupelo, the raw intimacy of early Cat Power, and the haunted landscapes of Magnolia Electric Co., while embracing the self-possessed noisiness of alt-rock trailblazers like Built to Spill and The Breeders. Bolstered by the playing of Norwich drummer Ben Rodwell and the vocal harmonies of Leeds-based musician Neve Cariad, Total Dive is the sound of a band coming fully into their own. These are songs inhabited by wide Norfolk skies, thousands of shared miles on the road, the noise of heartbreak and humor, and the echoing silence of long hours spent in strange in-between places.
