The Antlers - Burst Apart


This is another of my "dive in head-first" posts that'll probably fail to register with the enduring fans of this band, so apologies in advance to those who'd question my knowledge of The Antlers' discography. The band, now on their fourth album, are located in Brooklyn and have spent the past couple of years opening for The National and gathering some of that all-important critical buzz. This, their second record to get over 8/10 on Pitchfork, should go some way in being rather decent indeed.

From first impressions that would be the correct judgment. Opener 'I Don't Want Love' is a quiet, moody indie-folk piece that puts out slightly ominous lyrics like "Keep your prison locked up/ And I will leave my gun at home" over a deceivingly content instrumentation that draws inspiration from contemporaries such as Deerhunter or Bon Iver. 'French Exit' continues this kind-of anti-ballad approach with the closing line "I'm not a puppy you'll take home/ Don't bother trying to fix my heart". The music is all ambient and lovely and cute (dare I say Cults?) and very much my thing.


Things then get a bit intense with 'Parentheses' with a strong reverberating drumbeat intro, with shrill vocals and beeps making it a distinct Portishead influence. There's a slightly tenuous link between brackets and a gap~in~the~heart but the falsettos almost give the impression that the lyrics aren't really that important, or at least not as important as their knack for eerie atmospherics. Certainly the crows in the chorus to 'No Widows' reiterate this, but lyrically this is a masterclass: "If I'm stuck out here alone/ If I'm stranded here all year/ Just nothing left at home/ No widows disappear". Hinting at the insignificance of life, the track is definitely an emotional peak for the band (although, of course, that's a little bit of an empty observation for someone who only knows this album).

'Rolled Together' has an immediate "ooh it's obviously about marijuana" vibe that's not exactly dispelled with its extremely blissful ambience and good-enough-for-M&S-adverts riff loop - think along the lines of Jakatta or Air. The strongest Radiohead influence is on 'Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out': the meaning of it is pretty much lost on me, and that's from someone who's lost a tooth on a night out before. It begins all folksy but crescendos with some heavy (The Bends) riffs that add to the hysteria. It's not really a favourite of mine, but it's different. 'Tiptoe' returns to the ambience with a (not sure if intentional) melody similar to Muse's Knights of Cydonia.

'Hounds' sounds like Bloc Party at their very best moments of sitting-in-a-summery-field atmospherics (see: So Here We Are) and even introduces some trumpets with minimal menace; a true romantic disposed against "they want to think for you/ pour drinks for you" opportunists and sleazeballs. 'Corsicana' references to a town in Texas where a father killed his own children: lyrically it draws from this idea with the theme of dying together. "We lost our chance to run/ Now the door's too hot to touch/ We should hold our breath with mouths together now". The real emotional punch though is final track 'Putting the Dog to Sleep', which laments "Well my trust in you/ Is a dog with a broken leg/ Tendons too torn to beg/ For you to let me back in". "I'm not gonna die alone", Peter Silberman cries repeatedly over an almost Wall of Sound orchestration.


After the themes dealt with on Burst Apart you'd be forgiven for feeling a little melancholy; but the band have a surprising knack for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Even though dying alone is dealt with on the closing track, they vow to "wipe blood off your paws". Even though they're dying in 'Corsicana', they're together. Whilst there are moments of true despair (No Widows), the whole album to me feels like light at the end of the tunnel, if you'll excuse an obvious metaphor. "If you're going through Hell, keep going" indeed.

Rating: 8.5/10
Highlights: No Widows, Putting the Dog to Sleep, Corsicana, Hounds, I Don't Want Love
Avoid: Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out
Artwork Watch: A sexual encounter with Jackson Pollock in a copse.

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