Trials & Truths
Horse ThiefLPA
- Another Youth
- Difference
- Drowsy
- Empire
- Falling For You
LPB
- Evil’s Rising
- Little One
- Mountain Town
- Million Dollars
- Santa Fe
Two years after their widely feted Bella Union album debut Fear In Bliss, Oklahoma quintet Horse Thief have created another surging, crafted beauty in Trials and Truths. The record’s unified feel still contains many contrasting elements, sounding both panoramic and nuanced, intimate and anthemic and vibrant and contemplative, while frontman Cameron Neal’s lyrics range from the confessional to the metaphorical as he surveys the passing of time.
For Trials And Truths, Horse Thief reunited with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver). Frontman Cameron Neal notes, “We had more time to dwell on these songs, as the first record was written and recorded really quickly. We’d toured Fear In Bliss for eighteen months, which really helped us get to know each other’s styles, and where to take the new songs. It means this album is closer to the sound that we want.”
Influenced by their life on the road, love, relationships and home, Neal says, “The title Trials And Truths is about us: we’re still a young band, figuring out how to make things work and to have a purpose, so we can get through any hard times. But the band is very much together—it feels like a brotherhood, we’re all in it for the same reason.”
Trials And Truths follows Fear In Bliss, the band’s highly acclaimed Bella Union album debut. Clash Music noted its “punchy riffs and sunshine melodies, lovely harmonies and production,” while The Line Of Best Fit said, “twinkling guitars and keys sashay around Neal’s tender voice, creating a warm, melodic bath of sound. It’s a thing of beauty.”
Horse Thief was originally founded in Denton, TX by Neal. He joined forces with Cody Fowler (bass), Alberto Roubert (drums, percussion), Zach Zeller (organ, keys, guitar) and Alex Coleman (guitar, keys) while studying at Oklahoma’s Academy of Contemporary Music. The band was then introduced to Bella Union through their friends, The Flaming Lips, and released their debut album shortly after.