The Antlers - Hospice
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CD Details
Artist: The AntlersEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2009-08-18
Music Label: Frenchkiss
Soundtracks:
- Prologue
- Kettering
- Sylvia
- Atrophy
- Bear
- Thirteen
- Two
- Shiva
- Wake
- Epilogue
Music reviews of Hospice
Music Review: Such elegant beauty...
Rating: 5 Stars
Thinking about this album, the term Lo-fi (regardless of the new subgenre it now refers to) would imply lower sound quality (as a result of cheaper equipment used during production) or at the very least a stripped down sound without a great deal of multitracking. However, the use of low end synths, circuit bending, etc. has redefined Lo-fi (somewhat ironically.) Ironic because an album such as Hospice, which is a veritable sonic masterpiece, is associated with a term that evokes the static crackle of an old Lead Belly record. I am assuming that the digital wash which underpins certain tracks or the sustained, modulating notes which weave their way around the refrains and punctuate the intermissions conjure this connection. Make no mistake however; the clarity of sound is amazing. This is certainly an aural pièce de résistance which justifies the existence of 500 dollar headphones (almost.)
Upon listening to this album, one might be reminded of certain moments from Kid A, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets, along with elements of shoegaze and post-rock which are used sparingly and to great effect. However, this album is far from being a pastiche of the previously mentioned albums or musical approaches. In fact, holistically it doesn't necessarily sound like any one of them though if one were to deconstruct Hospice, certain elements of the previously mentioned albums would be present. And by using post rock/shoegaze as a tool instead of as a template, they brilliantly avoid some of the pitfalls for those respective genres. Thus, instead of being a 70 minute album with 5 songs, Hospice is ultimately a great pop album with excellent song craft which is woven within a shoegaze tapestry.
For example, while a song like "Thirteen" on a typical post-rock album would be used to segue between two 10 minute exercises in dynamics, inevitably leading to a crescendo and the subsequent wall of sound, on Hospice it serves as the bridge between "bear" and "two", tracks which are ultimately more indebted to Pet Sounds than any "experimental" forms of music. Luckily this approach brings a necessary levity to an album which delves painfully and effectively into the reality of death, and not death in any romanticized notion which lends itself to fashion, aesthetics and narcissism. This album tackles the pained notion of death as negation, the end of life, the end of hope, the end of connection. Within this context we are given the moral complexity of interacting with those who are dying (and not in the Sylvia Plath sense), the power dynamic it entails, the conflicting feelings, the real human experience stripped bare and revealed.
For a concept album, it masterfully avoids (both lyrically and sonically) the maudlin trappings that punctuate so many concept albums. There is not a single moment of self-indulgence on this album, a maturity that is shocking for such a relatively new band. It is truly a feat to make a concept album about someone dying in a hospice without falling into self-pity, exaggeration, egoism or theatrics. It is quite simply amazing. These are a group of musicians who see through the glass more clearly than most.
I would also like to steer people away from the pretensions expressed by other reviewers in relation to this album. I am not sure what an upbringing is in the "Indie Music Tradition", but I have never tried to craft an identity out of my record collection. Any problems of accessibility have less to do with "Indie Music" and more to do with openness. Someone who would immediately dismiss this album would probably dismiss John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" for the same reasons. That is not to say that a John Coltrane fan would necessarily like Hospice or vice-versa, but a willingness to try something different is far more important than any inclinations towards a term which doesn't really encapsulate any specific genre of music to begin with. I also don't get any references to Bon Iver (with the exception of the occasional use of falsetto) or the Decembrists (outside of the fact that they've both done concept albums.)
All in all, this album is simply powerful, beautiful, poignant, emotionally gripping and a post-modern masterpiece. It is not an album to dance to, I'm not even sure if it's an album I would want to listen to with other people. There is an overwhelming sense of intimacy with very difficult themes that does not lend itself to casualness. I once remember Kind Rock criticizing Radiohead for making music that he couldn't even imagine throwing on at a party. While being an avid fan of Radiohead while concurrently thinking of Kid Rock as one of the worst things to happen to music in my lifetime, I do get his point. There is music for all seasons, and not everyone is willing to grapple with what comes after the autumn leaves have fallen. For those who are, this album is a perfect and beautiful artistic expression of the ever looming terminus at the end of this long and winding road. I cannot recommend it enough.
Description of Hospice
Beginning three years ago as a singer-songwriting project for PETER SILBERMAN, The Antlers have since expanded into a full three-piece, including powerhouse drummer Michael Lerner and the layer-lathering, multi-instrumentalist, Darby Cicci. Appropriately enough, "Hospice?s ten distinct chapters resonate on debilitating sonic and lyrical levels, from the hypnotic harp and tension-ratcheting build of "Two" to the singor- sink choruses of "Bear" and the speaker-rattling peaks of "Sylvia". Mastered by GREG CALBI who has worked with SONIC YOUTH, GRIZZLY BEAR, MGMT and PASSION PIT amongst many more, the sound on the album is hauntingly beautiful and the album will no doubt be heavily featured on many best of ?09 lists.Alternative Rock CDs
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