The Antlers – Hospice: Part1 (Two)

Bad writer’s block. The kind that sort of grips and pulls, before it sucks you in and drags you through its aching path. Don’t worry, I’ve opted to start keeping a journal where I can try to piece together some, hopefully, splendid words. But ugh sometimes it’s like being a sheep in fog – I get it. Still, there’s not much reason to really drag such affairs out and although there’s a lot in terms of personal affairs, why bore here with niceties. Ha, life can be a drag sometimes and still, there’s music like Hospice so why drag this out even more…

Tremendous, really, the beauty of The Antlers’ music is many, many things; a myriad of varieties of greatness – Hospice was where it began for me. Dissimilar from Burst Apart, like, well, two fine albums that highlight dark and light with brilliant displays of musicianship, it’s outstanding on its own spectacular levels. I’ve been writing all of this about one song in particular, “Two,” so here is some ranting on it because I have a feeling there’s more to say about this album later.

Entering with a guitar that strums away to the background of a chugging drum and with a spinning, swirling and enveloping style in Peter Silberman’s singing, the song almost – as its style would like it – passes you by. The lyrics are downright stunning in the way they convey the even, whole feel of ‘TWO’ and how it takes at least two people to develop a relationship, a friendship, a partnership. It’s cruelly beautiful the way he’s watching her slip away knowing that there is nothing he can do, it’s bitterly cruel in how he’s aware of what can make her happy and it’s even poignantly cruel for the way it points out how everything, including our sordid pasts, continue to shape our present lives. The music swells and encircles with the same aforementioned flow and before you know it, the complexity is best noticed in this fitting selection:

“Two ways to tell the story (no one worries)
Two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry
Two people talking inside your brain
Two people believing that I'm the one to blame
Two different voices coming out of your mouth
While I'm too cold to care and too sick to shout”

There’s solace in the delivery, even through the puns, it’s a clever idea that amazingly displays a vicious but complicated truth. The doctor calls out that “enough is enough” and the enduring battle is finally put to rest. One of the strongest points about Hospice is the way emotions and words marry crushing sounds and although most of “Two” is about as ‘bright’ as it gets, the words completely crush you themselves.

The ending, with a lulling and almost droning cadence is ominous as a concluding sentiment. The beginning of the song rises with a chiming guitar and here the ending is fifty seconds of translucent sound: dense, foggy and bleak. It’s a stark contrast from where it started and quite possibly, the other half to complete the being. – Bryan