Review Summary: Soundtrack for survival
Indie-llectuals from Brooklyn The Antlers have created a beautiful piece of emotional material that has the storytelling ability of a great American novelist and the punch of a hit of morphine.
Drawing from a range of folk, electronic and Shoegaze influences you might compare the sound to
Elliott Smith in the way the lyrics have chosen to tackle difficult subjects without overt pretentiousness. There is also a certain post-rock sound to some of the songs which makes for some interesting and powerful interludes to break the silence.
The album does contain some deep, heartfelt and reflective lyrics about loss and death but where it truly stands out is on the space between the catchy lyrics of ukulele beard-growing companion 'Two' and hiking sock-warmer 'Bear'. The album is not as straightforward as other Brooklyn natives
Grizzly Bear and
The National whose lyrics sound a lot sadder and perhaps alcohol-induced. I would be more inclined to put the band alongside folk giants such as Bonnie "Prince" Billy for the sole fact you can not find a more raw and honest side of mental illness without searching through the previous two decades and heading back to less apathetic soul-searching singers that used music as a cure to the torment of battling with a difficult upbringing. The album sees death as a fact of life as opposed to something to mourn over, all things must come to pass which includes the innocence and nature-favoring 'The Universe Is Going to Catch You', this is going to take a bit more of your precious time to explore.
Though I did enjoy the peacefully dissonant strings and textures of ambient 'Prologue' and the slightly unnerving hauntedness of 'Wake and 'Kettering', I mainly listened for the calm moments of space in between the storm. It is the time when you open your eyes and jump out your skin for a split second when you can truly appreciate the nature of the album to shock and grab hold of you as you hear a lyric that resonates throughout your whole inner being, feeling like you were around to witness events that inspire memories such as 'all the while I'll know we're ***ed And not getting un***ed soon' or 'You had a new dream, it was more like a nightmare' on the album highlight 'Two'.
The dry falsetto voice of Silberman works perfectly for the subject matter and encapsulates the apathy you normally feel before the grief sets in after you have lost someone whether real or imagined. Mainly it is the way the lyrics are mature in depth and integrity that makes the album more of a soundtrack to raw human emotion or a description of time passing as you the listener become so absorbed you forget you have been listening for almost an hour and feel a vague sense of clarity from listening to someone you never met describing their personal experiences on cancer and emotional abuse.
You feel like you have experienced the same effects but avoided the pain and loss and you want to reach out and help that person from slipping back down into the spiral of relapsing through their illness all over again but you can only sit and let the music take hold of your nervous system. The character on the cover of the album accompanies you from diagnosis and personality fragmentation to recovery and ultimately to self-destruction and fades into broken remains all for the sake of art. I suggest you make up your mind on whether this album is one you will be listening to when you are sad but if you want a graphic depiction on the realities of mental illness in a stigmatized culture of beating around the bush when it comes to depression/schizophrenia and you are sick of seeing the next medical solution for pain avoidance than this is as real as it gets.
Whether the lyrics are true or a metaphor we can only make our own minds up but if looking for an album you listen to as the cold winter nights are arriving I suggest this be somewhere on your list.
