The Funeral (2006) – Band of Horses

Seattle indie rock band Band of Horses have been around since 2004. By the time their debut album Everything All the Time appeared in March 2006, they already had seen various line-up changes. Singer-songwriter Ben Bridwell (lead vocals, guitar, pedal steel, keyboards) was the only remaining co-founding member and still is to this day. Here’s The Funeral, which also became the album’s first single. The stunning sound of the song, which is credited to the entire band, drew me in right away.

– Chris & Max Pick …songs from 2006 (Christian Music Musings)

Thanks to Christian’s Music Musings’ blog, I’ve been introduced to a wealth of great tracks that had somehow eluded my radar. One such gem is today’s featured song – The Funeral by Band of Horses. With its expansive sonic landscape and sweeping, melancholic melody, it delivers an emotional weight that feels cinematic and yet also personal. Its atmosphere and slow-burning intensity reminded me of another track I featured back in July 2023 – Elastic by Chief Springs. Both songs conjure an ethereal, almost otherworldly mood, blending ambient textures with emotional rawness.

The Funeral begins with a deceptively gentle intro, featuring Ben Bridwell’s reverb-laden vocals floating above shimmering guitar lines. But as the track unfolds, it surges into a thunderous crescendo of distorted guitars and pounding drums – an explosive release that feels like a eulogy at full volume. Lyrically, it dances around themes of loss, disillusionment – “At every occasion I’ll be ready for the funeral,” Bridwell sings, repeating it like a mantra of resignation and preparation. The Funeral seems like a defining track of the indie rock surge of the mid-2000s.

The following was extracted from the Wikipedia article below:

The Funeral by the American rock band Band of Horses is taken from their debut studio album, Everything All the Time (image inset). The alternative rock song was released as the lead single from the album. In August 2009, Pitchfork Media named The Funeral the 67th-greatest song of the 2000s.

Singer Ben Bridwell said, “The basis of The Funeral was just really the start of me whining about my aversion to social occasions and holidays. The pressure of say New Year’s being the best party night of your life, or Christmas being this forced togetherness. I was quite the pessimist in those days when I wrote the song.” Bridwell compared this dread to the feeling one gets before attending a funeral.

The video below tells the story of a man whose dog has died. Saddened by his loss, the man drowns his sorrows in alcohol. He then drives under the influence and the end of the video suggests he crashes head-on into a delivery truck. The video shows a sign for the Galway Bay Bar in Chicago and the cars in the video are all 1970s models.

[Verse 1]
I’m coming up only to hold you under
And coming up only to show you wrong
And to know you is hard, we wonder
To know you all wrong, we won

[Pre-Chorus]
Ooh
Ooh

[Verse 2]
Really too late to call, so we wait for
Morning to wake you is all we got
But to know me as hardly golden
Is to know me all wrong, they won

[Chorus]
At every occasion, I’ll be ready for the funeral
At every occasion once more, it’s called the funeral
At every occasion, oh, I’m ready for the funeral
At every occasion of one billion day funeral

[Bridge]
I’m coming up only to show you down for
And coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside, the dead leaves they own the lawn
‘Fore they died and had trees to hang there upon

References:
1. The Funeral (Band of Horses song) – Wikipedia