So much of the music I like is melancholy and elegant that I’m surprised I haven’t coined a term for it. Elencholy. Melagant. Anyway, The Antlers latest album, primarily an examination of coming to terms with the past and moving on, fits the bill. There’s nothing raucous here; the songs are on a very slow burn filled with quiet drama and passion befitting the lyrics’ introspective nature. And there are bright, hopeful, positive moments too, but I’m obviously in it for the melagance.
The opening track “Palace” is like the sunrise on the saddest day of your life; the drums whisper like a breeze, the piano and some gentle synthy chimes buried in the background twinkle like the first glimmers of light, the horns’ slowly-building overlapping countermelodies like imperceptibly-morphing washes of color across the sky, and when the drums and Peter Silberman’s singing (which, in his upper register, bears a slight resemblance to Jeff Buckley) become a bit more expansive around the 2:50 mark it’s like the sun finally streaming over the horizon. Beautiful.
Buy it here.
1 thought on “Favorite Albums of 2014: Familiars, by The Antlers”