The Antlers
Hospice

Album of the Decade! (Yeah right). Album of the year! (Sure). Album of the Month (There we go...). Album of the Week?

Well. When you compose a song like "Kettering", with that sad piano riff, as if it were coming from the next room. You add that low whispered singing. Well. You really know how to do it. (Respect). You can’t get enough of it. You hear his mouth enunciate the words. The sound of his lips.

Then if after such an outstanding song (one of the most beautiful I listened to in 2009) you follow it up with the powerful "Sylvia", among whose melodies those who understand music (so, not me) will find "obvious" references to Shoegaze sounds (indeed!), then, as I was saying, after such a "one-two" punch, you can't help but feel quite intrigued to wonder who is behind such versatility and, at the same time, pop taste in composition.

"Silberman". Yes. Peter to his friends (so not me). A solitary guy. He closes himself at home (New York) and brings out this "Hospice" (the album). Many title it Album of the Year (Yeah right). Sure. You listen again and notice that the songs are complex. Layered. With each listen, a new detail stands out. The melody. Yes. It must be that.

Pop soul. Masked. Sometimes a lot (like in Wake). Sometimes very little (like in Bear). It's the pop spirit that peeks, incessantly, silently behind that noise of sounds that often dress and cover Peter's tracks. Like that sad and melancholic aura. Like the dark and dramatic story of the album. A concept where key themes are cancer. Illness. Hospitals. Death. A cheerful thing. That has its reason. Because you feel it. It envelops you. Knocks from beneath the Pop melody.

Arcade Fire. Antony (without the Johnsons). Sigur Rós. Neutral Milk Hotel and Okkervil River. Even Slowdive and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. These are some of the groups to which the sound of the funny (but sad) Peter has been compared. But it seems like a diversion to me. Mentioning so many risks confusing. Risk losing sight of the intrinsic beauty of "Hospice". Which is not derived. But pure and crystalline. "Hospice" is (in fact) a collection of all this and also none of it. It’s a beautiful album. Perhaps.

Album of the week, we said. (Or of the month). Of the year?!?
Tell me.