the antlers - hospice

admittedly I have not spent too much time with the new album Hospice by The Antlers. However this album has become instantly intriguing for a number of reasons.

First off, if you haven't heard about this albums yet, you're probably not that into pretentious interweb musicology. It's a very highly buzzed about album, as a google search will show the plethora of reviews heaping praise driven adjectives over and over again. Everyone saying the same thing in a slightly altered manner.

With the excpetion of this guy.

Interestingly enough recent events have kept me out of my usual loop of online buzz, however during a random spare moment of time a week ago I watched a video of their perfomance of the track "Two" at the pitchfork music festival. I was instantly drawn to the driving reverb and gripping tones of the song. Though at the time it was more about my affinity for "indie noise" rather than any of the general praise for the album or it's artists.

Over the past week Hospice has been at the forefront of my rotation. The more I listened, the more information I had to look up regarding the artist, the subjects within the album, and yes, even what other's were saying.

So what are my opinions? Honestly, it wouldn't be right to call this space sonic anarchy if I wasn't truly committed to the idea of free thinking, free listening, freedom from the structured opinions of others. One of the reasons for my recent partial hiatus from blogging was that I realized my thoughts and opinions were becoming too empty and biased due to outside influences.

So in my first attempt to give a fully uninfluenced I have chosen to say a few things about this album.

I think the album is great. I seriosuly can't get it out of my head. Listening to the ambient builds fight the earnestness of the vocals makes for quite the emotional ride. At the same time, honestly, I find some of the repetitiveness of the music a bit under creative. I think the idea here was to keep the common theme musically going as the album is more engulfed by the story than anything else. But at times this idea comes across as too much of trying to drive the same points home instead of exploring the idea in more open spaces.

But don't get me wrong. That is also part of what makes the music so great. The open air is not taken for granted, as every song hangs like somber clouds. Like being in heavy fog with your best friend there to keep from being lonely, but not without feeling lost.

As far as albums revolving around a central and personal story this one goes on the list with the good'ns (read: deloused, Hissing fauna to name a few). There is weight, and emotion around every turn. To read the lyrics has at times made me want to cry, and also drift into contemplation on topics like my relationships with close friends, and my own mortality.

When music reaches you to a point like that it becomes special. And so while I'm not ready to crown this as anything more than interesting and evocative, that still is saying a lot.

In particular the songs that have reached deep and came up victorious are "Two" and "Epilogue". If you get the chance for some quiet reflection I recommend spending some time with these tracks (and really the album as a whole is quite a moving experience). If they don't speak to you at all, then the album probably won't do much to change your mind.

And for now I don't plan trying to do much of that either ... till next time ... stay free.