Success was a long time coming for North Carolina’s Band of Horses. Formed in 2004, it wasn’t until 2008’s Cease To Begin album that the band began to be noticed. It was the kind of record that got passed on, from friends to other friends, gradually making Band of Horses everyone’s favourite discovery. Now taken to heart by swathes of people, including critics — there has been a real sense of anticipation for Infinite Arms, their brand-new album, which they are promoting with a sold out UK tour.

Increased popularity has allowed the band the luxury of an expanded line-up: initially just a trio who looked more at home headlining tough karaoke bars in their deep south, they’re now a six-piece with a bigger and more layered sound.

Any set Band of Horses play is like a trip through the great American songbook, with snatches of all those men you associate with the land of the free. You can hear Neil Young in their softer moments as in No One’s Going To Love You Like I Do, Tom Petty in the stomping choruses of Is This a Ghost and Compliments and Bruce Springsteen’s stadium rock on Laredo.

Warmth and heart radiates from each track, with singer Ben Bridwell’s voice veering between gentle crooning and earnest defiance.

Lyrically, each track is a tribute to their home lives, to late-night drives down empty freeways, meals in shiny diners and to the comfort they take from being anonymous in the town they grew up in. Drawing their set evenly from each of their albums, the band’s 90- minute performance had the whole Academy in an atmosphere of hushed reverence, from the start of Ode To LRC through to the closing cover of Them Two’s Am I A Good Man?

Band of Horses are a wonderful band, full of honesty, warmth and brilliance. If you haven’t discovered them already, you’re missing out.