"One of the most beautiful and moving works I've heard in a long, long time. Just astonishing."

-NPR's All Songs Considered

 

"Hospice is a skyscraping blend of the ambient and the anthemic, a record that swings for the bleachers at a time when it's fashionable to bunt."

-Pitchfork

 

"A concept piece populated with slow-motion feedback cyclones, melodies lifted from nursery rhymes, cavernous loud/soft shifts, and lyrics fixated on life’s little themes: love, death, and guilt."

-The Onion's A.V. Club

 

"Hospice is a work of rare beauty and a watershed moment in The Antlers’ career."

-Tiny Mix Tapes

 

"Hospice is at once the simplest and most immense album of the year."

-My Old Kentucky Blog

 

"An album of constant depth"

-NY Press

 

"A profound meditation on love and loss."

-Flavorpill

 

"truly heart-wrenching"

-Time Out New York

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4v2AyU4HAo]YouTube - The Antlers In Concert for NPR Music[/ame]

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkJhH_2343o]YouTube - The Antlers - the Live from Toronto series[/ame]

 

There are few albums that give me shivers. Few albums that really get me at my core – real albums, honest albums, painfully personal albums. Even rarer are those records that continue to do so on subsequent listens, hitting me hard each time I hear its story unfold. The Antlers’ Hospice does it like few I can remember.

 

The album is the product of Peter Silberman’s two year isolation in New York City, a seemingly foreign concept that is much closer to reality than many of the New York City myths you hear on records. Emerging from his self imposed exile, he joined with Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci to form the current incarnation of The Antlers, recording two EPs that would eventually merge to become Hospice. The album tells the story of a man forced to watch his loved one struggle with – and eventually succumb to – bone cancer, and it tells it eloquently, brutally, breath-takingly.

 

If, as Ben Gibbard proclaims, “Love is watching someone die,” then Hospice is a love album. And, unconventionally, it is. The album is remarkably multi-dimensional, delving into the perspectives and moods of both lovers involved – the love, the hate, the fear, the denial, the dependence. It is the sinking stomach of a desperate hope fading. It is the pain of being a helpless bystander as invisible Death works his slow knife. It is the phantom limb left by a loved one.

 

The album begins with an instrumental track, entitled “Prologue,” that evokes William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, an experimental series that chronicles the gradual demise of old magnetic tapes. It is no coincidence that much of Hospice evokes that same sonic experiment – the record is a study in degradation over time.

 

But although the album is sonically fascinating, it is the storyline that carries the record. Reading the album’s liner notes – arranged as if a series of short stories – opens the door to a depressive fog. I won’t even bother trying to do it justice here. The story is beautifully written and perfectly framed. And stretched over the canvas of haunting and stark music, the somber lyrics of Hospice somehow manage to be beautiful.

 

The more I listen to Hospice, the more impressed I become. Its swells and silence combine to form a completely devastating piece of art. This is not a happy album. This is not something you want to listen to at a party, or on the radio. But it is an album that begs to be understood, excruciating though that understanding may be. Amazingly enough, Silberman’s exile, isolation, and loneliness have given birth to a testament to human connection. I will be visiting this album for years to come.

 

90-94 — Near Perfection. One of the bodies of best work in recent memory. Required listening for anyone who loves music in its purest form.

 

http://www.myspace.com/theantlers

so very beautiful. thanks for sharing.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2XQGJcTgKU]YouTube - The Antlers - Kettering[/ame]

:heart:

i gave the album a close listen last night and am very touched.

the lyrics and sounds capture those odd and utterly cold, solitary feelings so well, you're going through, while accompanying somebody you love, while they're fighting for nothing, their incredibly unbearable, futile pain and death. what an ode to that.

brimming with love, i think.

^^

agree with you!

BUMP

good album :)

:heart: Bear

EVERYONE LISTEN TO THE NEW ALBUM.

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/24/135572911/first-listen-the-antlers-burst-apart

^ YES.

 

I quite like it :wacko:

I'm listening to it for about the third time now :heart:

The title of this thread should be changed since hospice is no more their new album.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN0hNo22S_I&feature=related]YouTube - ‪The Antlers : Kettering (Live) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn‬‏[/ame]

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYRNsHRP3JI&feature=related]YouTube - ‪The Antlers : Bear (Live) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn‬‏[/ame]

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNbEFT7VV_8&feature=related]YouTube - ‪The Antlers : Rolled Together (Live) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg‬‏[/ame]

Bumpin' this thread because I "discovered" this band a few weeks ago and I'm really coming to love them.

I've listened to Hospice once. It was brilliant and beautiful and all that but I could never listen to it again. It's possibly the most depressing album I've ever listened to.

 

I much prefer Burst Apart for this reason. Though the album is rather hit-and-miss I can actually listen to it, and have it not make too major an impact on my mood. When the songs miss it's kinda boring but when the songs hit - my god. It's amazing. Strong contender for my AOTY.

^Really? I had to keep listening to it until I knew exactly what the story going on in the album was. It is a bit depressing but at the same time I love it so much that it doesn't actually make me depressed. It's just so haunting and beautiful and amazing.

 

I love the fact that Burst Apart is more positive though. It's an amazing album.

I think I picked up on most of the story first time around. Maybe it's because I'm feeling really ill right now, Hospice wasn't the album I needed to listen to.

True. Possibly not the album to listen to for you!

 

I somehow find that it makes me feel better when I'm in a bad mood. It's like, 'hey, things aren't so bad. At least you're not this guy' :P

I love this band, and since I saw them live, I am craving their music like air.

That said, does anyone have a bootleg of theirs?

wow... just gave this album a listen... so good!

 

 

definitely will be listening to it more!

Nothing they've done before Burst Apart has ever and probably will ever appeal to me... :\

 

But Burst Apart is probably the best thing they've done musically.

BUUUUMP

[ame=

]

[/ame]

 

New album already!

OMG. I saw them in april and then it felt like Burst Apart was their new CD as in just released. I can't believe they'll have a new one already coming up!

Don't get too excited, it's a 4 track EP not an album.

Hospice is the best album I've ever listened to. I first heard it back in 2010 when my brother told me to listen to it and it makes me cry but also makes me feel optimistic. I could listen to it all day every day

Drift Drive

 

 

http://soundcloud.com/antirecords/the-antlers-drift-dive/s-A8LLn

 

(sorry, I don't know how to embed songs on here ;;__;;)

Listen to Another Track From the Antlers' Undersea: "Crest"

http://pitchfork.com/news/46984-listen-to-another-track-from-the-antlers-undersea-crest/