the antlers: hospice

The Antlers’ Hospice is one epic sounding record! It features songs with triumphant melodies, atmospheric buildups, and crashing climaxes... so yes, in terms of its musically style, Hospice sounds like Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky!

The album is exceedingly depressing as well. Hospice is a concept album that tells the story of a caregiver—the narrator—who recounts his relationship with a distressed bone cancer patient name Sylvia (“you’d been abused by the bone that refused you”). Let me warn you again, all the songs are quite gloomy, especially "Two". Do not let the cheery melodies and Peter Silberman’s gorgeous falsetto voice fool you; with lyrics such as "There was nothing that I could do save you, the choir’s gonna sing, and this thing is gonna kill you.../...it tore apart the canyon running down your femur, (I thought that it was beautiful, it mead me a believer.) And as it opened I could hear you howling from your room, but I hid out in the hall until the hurricane blew..." and the sadness goes on and on, "Two" is easily the darkest song on the album! Although Hospice is a concept album, each song can stand on its own—every track is like a short story—it works and makes sense independently, but they are most effective as a whole.

Hospice is ambitiously emotional and hauntingly beautiful. The Antlers has crafted something that is incredibly pure and moving; Hospice is a masterpiece, and at the moment, it is in my top five albums of 2009!

Sylvia [wicked-cool song]
Bear [wicked-cool song]
Two [super-wicked-cool song]

visit The Antlers' MySpace here
Hospice comes out on August 18th, you can pre-order it here
The band is selling the CD version of Hospice on their tour with Frightened Rabbit, tonight is the last night of the tour, go see this amazing band live and buy Hospice!