The Antlers - Hospice

Rating: 7.8
Released: March 3, 2009



Hospice, the latest album by The Antlers, starts out inauspiciously with an ambient prologue that, honestly, doesn’t really need to be there. It floats around rather aimlessly for two and a half minutes, and then it ends. It doesn’t even particularly succeed at setting the mood for the album. Thankfully, the remaining 49 minutes more than make up for this, providing a great look at one of the more promising songwriters in indie rock.

To some extent, Hospice reminds me of Grizzly Bear, but with a shoegaze bent, as much of the album is hidden in haze. It’s a combo that works well, especially since Peter Silberman (the frontman and occasionally the sole member of the band) doesn’t use the fuzz to hide weaker songwriting, but instead to accentuate the strengths of the songs. The result is an album that immediately has a sense of being a warm, fireside type album, but which holds well to repeated listens.

It helps, of course, that the lyrics are so fascinating. It takes careful attention to figure out exactly what he means a lot of the time, but that only helps make the album even more worthy of repeated listens. The lyrics manage to strike a balance between sweet and weird, such as on “Atrophy,” where Silberman sings, “I’d happily take all those bullets inside of you and put them inside of myself.” Silberman’s gentle vocals are perfectly suited to the lyrics, delivering them with just the right amount of fragility.

There are three huge highlights on Hospice, “Sylvia,” “Bear,” and “Two.” Each of these capture the more energetic side of the band. About midway through, “Sylvia” explodes in a burst of noise that makes for one of the most powerful moments on the record. “Bear,” meanwhile, is probably the single best song from start to finish, built from a catchy vocal melody and an imbued with a driving energy that helps pick up the album’s intensity after the both longer and slower “Atrophy.” “Two” is similarly catchy and immediate.

On the other hand, where the album fails is where it’s least active. I hinted at this earlier, when I talked about the prologue, but that’s not the only offender on the album. “Thirteen” is similar to the prologue (though there are some vocals near the end), only placed in the middle in the album, and it’s just as ineffective. Even the more typical songs occasionally fall prone to meandering, particularly “Atrophy” and “Wake,” both of which are simply too long at over seven and a half minutes. While both are built from solid foundations, they would be more effective with tighter songwriting.

Even with its flaws, Hospice is a very good album in the indie folk realm. While hardly unique, it’s a very pleasant listen with a handful of standouts scattered throughout. I’ve not heard anything else by The Antlers, but everything I’ve read suggests that this is a big step up from previous albums by The Antlers. If that’s true, and if Silberman (and co) continue to improve, they could produce something truly spectacular. Until then, Hospice is a very worthwhile choice.


-Pnoom