THE
ANTLERS – Hospice
(www.myspace.com/theantlers)
by Paul Silver
OMG! This is so astoundingly beautiful! When
I got this album, I was told that they’re
“sort of like Cymbals Eat Guitars.”
As frequent readers of Jersey Beat may know,
I wrote an extensive review of CEG’s debut
album a few months ago, and immediately declared
it as the probably best album of 2009. So, I
was very skeptical. Well, in my opinion, it’s
not like CEG. It reminds me more of a slightly
sparser Spiritualized. The arrangements are
lush, and they just ebb and flow, and wash right
over you. There is a core of standard guitar/bass/drums
there, but there’s plenty of keyboards,
electronics and effects, and other instruments,
too. And whoever did the mixing, editing, and/or
producing deserves some kind of award, and should
be considered an integral part of the band.
The lyrics are staggeringly sad, as the album
literally is about being in a hospice, a place
where terminally ill people go to be kept comfortable
while they die. The mood is somber, but the
music shimmers. While listening to this, I literally
was agape, mouth open in disbelief at how profoundly
beautiful, sad and unsettling this album is.
It starts right from the first track, “Prologue,”
which sets the tone for the whole album. This
track is right out of a dream, bordering on
nightmare. It’s profoundly sad and very
disturbing. It flows seamlessly into the next
track, the first with lyrics, “Kettering.”
This track starts out very quiety, with pulsating
piano, falsetto vocals, and ambient electronics.
Lyrically, it’s an introduction, the hospice
worker describing meeting the patient. Halfway
in, the song bursts into a wall of beautiful
sound, shimmering, then gets all quiet again,
with mourning guitar wails and vocals.
“Sylvia,” the next track, is
probably the most accessible of the disc,
with more of a standard pop feel, if anything
on this album can be called standard. At first
listen, I liked the track, but liked many
others better. But this one has grown on me
a lot with repeated listens. It alternates
between quiet and loud sections, and has some
great hooks. The arrangement is just wonderfully
thick and lush on the louder parts. The addition
of trumpets toward the end, with a shimmering
backdrop of electronics gave me the shivers.
I’m overusing the word “shimmer”
but it’s just such an apt description,
and probably this is what made someone make
that CEG comparison in the first place.
“Atrophy” is another quiet, beautiful
track, with piano, electronics and vocals.
The recording, as with many tracks on the
album, is purposely done with a lot of hiss
and distortion, and really is an effective
tool for setting a mood. After this phase
of the song is done, there’s a period
of sort of noise, followed by somber vocals
and acoustic guitar.
“Bear” is a very cool track,
sort of sounding like a children’s song,
alternating with more standard, breezy pop.
The keyboards sound like something right out
of a music box. This flows right into the
next track, “Thirteen,” which
starts off as another shimmering (there’s
that word again) instrumental, a la Spiritualized.
Two-thirds of the way in, though, the melody
from the breezy pop part of “Bear”
returns, but this time in a dirge-like female
vocal that’s very eerie.
“Two” is another pop-based tune,
but with a combination of droning electronics
and lo-fi guitar strumming in the background.
Trumpets quietly intone in the background,
while piano chords add texture. The song ends
in a spooky choir of ethereal female vocals.
“Shiva” is a somber waltz, with
those music box keyboards back, but this time
so distorted as to show the twisted pain the
patient must be experiencing.
The whole album is so good, and really needs
to be listened to as a whole. So I am reluctant
to point out a stand-out track. But I must.
As good as every track is, “Wake”
gives me chills up and down my spine. It is
so ethereal, that it’s spooky. The distorted
vocal choir in the background sounds like
something out of an old black and white movie
from a dream.
Finally, “Epilogue” repeats the
melodic lines from “Bear,” but
with just guitar and vocals, and then the
track and album close with those beautifully
distorted electric keyboards again, as it
fades away.
This album now has a secure spot in my top
ten albums of 2009. I can’t stress strongly
enough how good this is, and you should rush
out and get it for yourself immediately.
