The Lake South City Escape The Inquiry Of Ms. Terri The Pimp And The Priest His Hands Matched His Tongue Leading []. The Death And The Berth The Procession The Lake And The River The Church And The Dime The Bitter Suite 1 And 2:Meeti The Bitter Suite 3:Embrace Smiling Swine Blood Of The Rose Where The Road Parts Dear Ms. Leading Battesimo Del Fuoco Remix Untitled Soul Song Smiling Swine Remix Red Hands Remix Writing On A Wall In Cauda Venenum The Tank The Poison Woman The Theif Mustard Gas Saved This Beautiful Life Go Get Your Gun Son Father Life And Death Untitled 1 bonus track Movement 1 bonus track Linus Isabella In Cauda Venenom The Church and the Dime Untitled 1 Life and Death Welcome to Daytrotter The Dead Don't Starve Home The Inheritance Filth and Squalor Black Deny it All Red But There's Wolves?
Orange She's Always Singing Yellow Things That Hide Away Green The Canopy Green Trapdoor Blue What Time Taught Us Indigo These songs build on The Dear Hunter's long history and bring new elements to the table, but I understand the decision to release them as a B-side.
Aside from "The Love", none of the other songs really matched the feel of Migrant. Even though they didn't fit, they make for great and memorable tunes that I will no doubt be playing on repeat for the next 6 months. Tweet user ratings The Color Spectrum Live. Random EP 2. A Moon Shaped Pool. Sleep Well Beast. The Hunting Party. On 5 Music Lists. Add a Comment.
Necrotica April 17th Comments. Great artwork! April 17th Comments. NeoSpaz April 17th Comments. This is yet another of the band's best songs, with the chorus bringing in some rather powerful, passionate emotion to reflect upon the tragedy taking place, really displaying some of his best vocals in the process. Mustard Gas is the other prominent song of this style and approach and also does a whole lot. Everything about this song feels chaotic, with the heavy focus on orchestra providing an utterly huge sense of scale, which is then twisted by the rapidly changing structure of the song, repeatedly switching between this and more personal moments, ultimately bringing forth a wide variety of tones and moods within only 4 minutes, with none of them being positive to continue hammering in this narrative point that the main character might as well be in hell.
The slower songs in Act III are interesting in the way they seem more intent on focusing on tone and atmosphere above the more catchy melodies the band so often brings to the table and focuses on. This is easily noticeable in both What it Means to be Alone and The Thief, where the densely layered instrumentation and backing vocals blend together and end up creating a near-ethereal sound which is matched by the far less structured vocal melodies. A lot of the other tracks have their own unique points of interest as well to further contribute to the album's eclectic tracklist.
Of these, He Said He Had a Story is easily my favourite thanks to the evocative that ends up being extremely dark and disturbing. It's clear that Casey wanted to write a truly detestable character here and he doubtlessly succeeded in my eyes, all without forgetting to make some incredible music, with the bouncy rhythms and sense of catchiness and power in every facet culminating in a personal favourite track. Another technique I'm a fan of is how this lighthearted, bouncy and happy music is paired with darker lyricism to make it feels as if someone's true thoughts are being desperately hidden behind a thin, more cheerful facade.
This is what makes Go Get Your Gun and This Beautiful Life so good despite the way they musically stand out so much from the rest of the album, with this tonal juxtaposition being delightfully grim. All of this leads up to the final trio of tracks and one of the album's finest moments.
Son, Father, and Life and Death all lead into one another smoothly and develop in a very satisfying and interesting way. Each section builds upon the previous, beginning with quite mournfulness and ending with a profound sense of dismay and regret over the actions that took place. Casey really sings his heart out in Life and Death in particular, which when combined with the lyrics that manage to simultaneously feel hopeful and totally hopeless makes for a perfect way to close off the album.
While this shifts in approach taken in this album may be offputting to some listeners, leading to the more divisive nature of Act III, this is just an incredible album across the board to me.
It manages to feel so different while distinctly remaining The Dear Hunter, which is always something I find impressive when bands are able to pull it off so cleanly. Not really the album I'd tell people getting into the band to start with, but without a doubt one of my favourites, absolutely stunning album all around. One aspect that I feel Act II did particularly well is the way most of these tracks transition into each other cleanly and cohesively, almost making it all feel like one big suite, reinforcing the feeling of it all being one constantly progressing story arc.
It not only provides some appeal for those who just want to listen to the album, as it's nothing intrusive and has some charm, especially with the way it can fall into reprises of those previous songs, but it further rewards those who have interest in the narrative components of the band's writing. The first couple of songs of the album reveal that despite some of the rawness being cut out of their sound in favour of more detailed symphonic arrangements and the like, that both the sense of melody and powerful intensity remain completely intact.
The Lake and The River especially represents this with its gorgeous melodies and often upbeat instrumentation being paired with Casey's vocals being equal parts melancholic and passionate. Often even during the more subdued sections, you'll find the backing vocal arrangements carrying these more fierce qualities instead. This song all culminates in both aspects crashing together with some wonderfully distorted guitar to bring it all to a climactic close, with its little coda then acting as a perfect leadup to the next song.
The more progressive angle to the band also shines through quite a lot here, bringing forth a vast array of emotions that represent the tumultuous story that's being conveyed. Despite all the effort made to bring a much more refined sound to the table, there's also no doubt that The Dear Hunter still know how to have some fun with things.
For every beautiful, heartfelt songs this has, such as The Bitter Suite III, you've usually got something far more upbeat waiting for you right after, such as Smiling Swine, a song that manages to sound so gleeful that it becomes borderline unhinged. This balance the album strikes is its strongest quality, keeping things varied in multiple ways and providing so much compelling contrast from song to song due to how tastefully both extremes are handled.
Unfortunately, even with so much done right, Act II still ends up being one of the band's weaker albums due to the way its flaws prevent this from being as enjoyable a full album experience as it by all rights should be. A lot of this comes down to the way the final few tracks fall rather flat for the most part. The aforementioned sense of balance that ties much of the album together falters by the end, with the multitude of more sombre, emotional songs becoming quite draining.
This feels both because of the more homogenous sound this last stretch has as a result, combined with the length of the album beginning to be felt in these final few songs, turning a potentially minor misstep into something that feels far larger, and making it all a bit of a slog to get through. It's not really the end of the world by any means, mind you, the album's still great, but the drop in quality that rears its head by the end stops this from reaching its incredible potential.
Despite the issues I may find the album to have, I cannot deny the fact that this is an amazing album that improves almost everything great the band had already established while also feeling like its own distinct identity, rather than just a 2nd part of the same album. So much this album does highlights why The Dear Hunter are one of my favourite bands out there right now, with the progressive and indie rock core being elevated by a lot of theatrics and embellishments to nail that rock opera aesthetic in the best ways.
Even with my complaints, I feel like this is a good entry point into the band's earlier sound, captures their intensity while demonstrating their more elegant, beautiful moments, giving the listener a good overview of the band while also showing them some of their best songs as well.
The album starts off with an a capella that immediately establishes the dramatic nature of the album, along with Casey's absolutely excellent vocals, all in all, the track doesn't really do too much, but sets the tone of the album excellently regardless. The Lake South similarly serves the purpose of establishing the sound of the album, but this time the instrumental side of things, with lush orchestrations evoking vivid imagery with an almost showtune-esque vibe to it, which I personally like quite a bit, and the way it leads into the first proper track, City Escape is executed quite well.
City Escape is the first proper song on the album, and definitely kicks things off with a bang, with a fast paced riff that's extremely reminiscent of The Mars Volta causing the intensity to rise dramatically.
Even here it becomes quite clear how detailed a lot of these compositions are, with a lot of different elements working together to craft a really entertaining sound, with hints of piano and backing vocals further cementing the dramatic nature of the band.
I also appreciate Casey's vocals here quite a lot, especially during the more climactic moments where he puts on a harsher vocal delivery. The Inquiry of Ms Terri takes things in a more subdued direction while also being far more dynamic overall, starting off quite pleasantly and building up to a bombastic chorus, slowly adding more elements until it all explodes with a distorted guitar riff and his harsher vocals once again.
The song continues to escalate in such a way, with each time the chorus comes in being more intense than the last, with the rest of the song doing similarly. While is the longest song here, it's also funnily enough the one that I feel has the least going on, with the main positive trait of it being the excellent, at points almost dreamy atmosphere, with the really gorgeous piano melodies in particular evoking some very vivid imagery.
A bit of a shame that the song itself ends up being somewhat repetitive, because this one definitely had the potential to be a masterpiece. Pimp and the Priest is what I consider to be the best song here, doubling down on the orchestral side of things and bringing in the brass instruments as well to make for what's essentially the theme of the villain of this concept album series.
There's a certain swagger to the song that I absolutely love, and the song is just all around so entertaining, sounding both extremely sinister, yet fun and lighthearted at the same time, can't express enough how much I love this song and the way that it embodies the band and all their theatrics. His Hands Matched His Tongue closes off the album remarkably well, starting off very softly with some acoustic guitar and a more melancholic tone, spending the majority of the length of the song just building up to an incredibly intense, climactic and emotionally charged end to the album.
While a bit rough around the edges with some minor things, notably occasionally carrying an idea for slightly too long, leading to a few sections that can feel a bit off, I still find this to be a remarkably crafted album that planted the seeds for the band's later, more well realised and refined albums.
The way it so perfectly balances between narrative and music, with each component serving to elevate the other is truly impressive to me, and gives the album, and band as a whole quite a lot of charm.
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