The music industry is a fickle beast. While some bands and artists seem to be in the right place at the right time, enjoying wide critical acclaim from the outset, others go woefully neglected by mainstream audiences, seemingly consigned forever to cult status, with a devoted, yet relatively small, fanbase.
Manchester band Elbow is a case in point. Having crated achingly beautiful songs since the early 90s, widespread success mostly eluded them until winning the Mercury Music Prize in 2008 with album The Seldom Seen Kid. Having released first album, Asleep In The Back, in 2001, it took seven years for the world to wake up and listen.
Hospice
The same could be said of New York three-piece The Antlers, whose self-financed album Hospice, quietly crept into the consciousness of music critics last year. Initial response was good - so good, in fact, the group had to press more CDs, going on to be signed by French Kiss records last August.
Yet still, the band, fronted by singer/songwriter Peter Silberman, escaped the attention of much of the world's music press, featuring in a few writers' album of the year lists but little more.
However, their music warrants more, much more, than this. One listen to Hospice is all it takes to be entranced by its crushingly sad, yet at the same time life-affirming melodies, combined with Peter Silberman's evocative, Sylvia Plath referencing lyrics. Subsequent listens reveal more of this album's tender, scarred beauty each time.
From album opener, Prologue, via singles Sylvia, Bear and Two, the album is a haunting piece of work that shifts from ethereal to discordant, leaving the listener mesmerised.
Although it's a concept album, based around the theme of caring for a terminally ill loved one, there is something strangely uplifting about the recurring themes of love, sadness, hope and acceptance. On Hospice, the fragility of human nature is exposed, bathed in the light streaming through the imaginary ward's windows.
Shoegaze and Cacophony
Musically, fans of shoegaze, Sigur Ros and Flaming Lips will find much here to admire. Peter's guitar, backed up by drummer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentalist Darby Cicci, combines with a cacophony of sounds, often sourced using unconventional recording techniques. The whole blend is drenched in walls of reverb and delay.
Speaking on the album's microsite, Peter says: "We were going for something that'd be dense but not too complicated. I hate the word lush, but I guess that's the best way of describing it. The structures are like pop songs - verse/chorus, verse/chorus, but the sound is a little more shoegaze-y or post rocky."
This year could see the band, currently on tour with Editors, develop their sound further. Although The Antlers originally began as a solo project, it soon became apparent to Peter during the recording of Hospice that the three-piece could take their sound in an unlimited amount of directions. He says: "Whatever we record next is going to define the three of us as a band."
For those who don't already own it - go out and buy Hospice. It's time to unearth this hidden gem of last year and throw your arms around what could emerge to be one of the most important bands of 2010.
Chris Davies - I am a full-time writer for a large regional UK newspaper based in the West Midlands and like to write about all kinds of subjects. My ...
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