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Brooklyn based Peter Silberman started The Antlers as a bedroom based solo act before adding another two members during the recording of the last album Hospice.
Now they return as a fully fledged three piece who still manage to maintain the heartfelt quality of a bedroom rock album. The two new members add an extra dimension especially on tracks like ‘Every night my teeth are falling out’ which by the albums hushed tones almost borders on a rock song and ‘Parentheses’ which has echos of OK Computer era Radiohead.
It's the nocturnal, sometimes minimal, arrangements that hold the most beauty here. With songs like ‘Corsicana’ and ‘Put the dog to sleep’ you can almost feel the heartbreak with every listen especially when Silberman sings "tell me we're not going to die alone/put your arms around my collar bone". Still, it's Silberman's falsetto that leads the charge, drifting softly through the arrangements helping to add new dimensions of beauty - in some ways reminiscent of Hayden Thorpe’s of Wildbeasts.
Despite all the hushed tones and songs of heartbreak and love loss this isn't a downer of an album - far from it. Somehow it captures an uplifting quality in a similar way to Arcade Fire, but without the same kind of mass appeal.
Rating: 8.5/10
Phill
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