Title: Hospice
Artiste: The Antlers
Year: 2009
Chronological position: Third album
Previous experience of this artiste?: Zero
Why is this considered a classic? Unsure
My thoughts
One minute (or thereabouts in) ---- Good, great, bad, meh, still waiting or other? Great
One track in --- Great
Halfway through --- Great
Finished --- Other really: great does not do this album justice. It is incredible.
Comments: I know precisely sod-all about The Antlers, but Wiki tells me this is a concept album, based around the relationship between a care worker and a woman dying of cancer. The opening is very atmospheric, with the kind of doomy, bleak feel you would expect from such a subject. Some sort of loops maybe in there too. Wow! I see they have harp, accordion, banjo, even trumpet here. Sounds very interesting. The second track really gets me right in the heart: the soft, almost mournful singing, the solo piano, and then the rest of the band come in and the song acquires a whole new level of intensity. Superb. Ends on an almost gospel-like vocal, fading out slowly, and leaving goosebumps.
The soft vocal suits this album perfectly: it would have been ruined by someone roaring or screaming over it, and yet in
Sylvia this is exactly what happens, but it works somehow, almost like an outpouring of emotion that can't be held in any more. When the vocal drops down to what appears to be normal for this album, it is quite hard to make out, but that ties in well with the idea of someone waiting by a loved one's bedside, perhaps praying and hoping. Talk about effective! Great bit of trumpet there, joined by I think accordion as the song heads to its conclusion. Hell, three tracks in and I'm already sold!
Soft piano then accompanies vocalist Peter Silberman on
Atrophy, and in the middle there's a sort of shimmering feedback guitar that takes the tune, I guess it could be representing the loneliness of the vigil by the beside, or the hum of the machinery keeping the patient alive? Whatever, it's spookily moving. Oh man, then it all fades away and acoustic guitar slips smoothly in accompanied by the vocal, quiet and resigned. I think I'm falling in love with this album. When the tempo quickens in
Bear it's unexpected, and yet somehow totally appropriate. I'm hesitant to compare The Antlers to anyone, but one band they do remind me of when they're a little more on the uptempo side is The Maccabees.
Spacey, ambient opening to
Thirteen, takes up two of the three minutes it runs for then a solo piano backs guest vocalist Sharon Van Etten with a beautiful vocal harmony to take it out and into
Two, with an almost ukulele sound on the guitar --- maybe that's the banjo mentioned? More uptempo, almost folky sound, very simple, plain vocal and I've made the mistake of listening to the lyric and now I'm crying like a baby. If I get through this it will be quite a feat.
Shiva has a beautiful, waltz feel to it, a lovely ballad, and then, just when I thought I was managing to hold it together well, along comes
Wake, with a soft gospel chorus, and those tears are in my eyes again. The massive organ (no, no childish humour is appropriate here for once) when it blasts in just tears my heart out and stamps on it. I almost feel like I'm going to die of sadness and anguish. Now a vocal harmony has vapourised what remained of my poor heart.
There's one more track, if I can get through it, which is by no means at this point certain. A soft acoustic guitar and a gentle vocal, almost like an epilogue to the story. I can only stand in amazement at the talent and the vision of this guy, Peter Silberman, who wrote the whole thing, and if it is a true story, or even partly true, he's very brave to share this with the world. I hope this served to give him some peace, to lay the ghost to rest. I know it's going to haunt me long after the album has ended. But that's okay: when music has this kind of effect on you it really stops being music and becomes something far more, far more important, far deeper and more spiritual. Albums like this come along very very seldom, and it's important they're listened to. Because they really, really matter.
Favourite track(s): There is nothing on this album I do not adore.
Least favourite track(s): Yeah, right...
Final impression --- Someone said this album had “the power to destroy listeners emotionally”, and it's true: I have been destroyed. But it's almost a welcome destruction, like tears you hold in when you can't give vent to your grief, when you have to put a face on for the world. I can honestly say I have not been as emotionally affected by an album in my entire life. This is, quite simply, transcendent and amazing in every way. It's not even an album really: it's a cathartic, terrifying, heartrending, gloriously sad and tragic experience.
Do I feel, at the end, A) I wish I had listened to this sooner
B) I'm sorry I bothered
C) I might end up liking this
D) Have to wait and see
E) Bit underwhelmed; was ok but a classic?
F) Definitely enjoyed it, but again would I consider it a classic?
G) Enjoyed this album just purely on its own merits
What do you think? A massive A and I have no hesitation whatever in awarding this album the very first ever
