For a band looking to make a follow-up to an extremely promising debut, Band of Horses sure went through a hell of a lot of transition to get Cease to Begin started. Mat Brooke, who was only one of two founding members of the band to begin with, decided to leave Band of Horses shortly after the completion of their stellar debut Everything All the Time. Which left vocalist Ben Bridwell literally to his own devices. Bridwell packed up his belongings in Seattle, saddled up and moved the Horses to South Carolina and that's where Cease to Begin found its beginning, middle and end.

Cease to Begin starts off powerfully with the My Morning Jacket-esque "Is There A Ghost," a song that is so damn catchy that it will likely end up in either some Target or Volkswagen commercial by the end of the year. The same could be said for album closer "Window Blues," a Country ballad that doesn't overdo it on the schmaltz factor. Unfortunately the same can't be said for tracks like "No One's Gonna Love You" or "Detlef Schrempf," Bridwell's obvious attempts here at trying to get some of that easy, cheesy Snow Patrol type money. I can't say I blame Bridwell for trying though, might as well try and reach for the brass ring while everyone is fawning over their next big thing status. Cease to Begin doesn't quite have the solid chops that their debut Everything All the Time brought to the proverbial table, but it's just strong and slick sounding enough to maybe muster these guys up over the hump and into the mainstream where the green flows like water.