Perhaps six albums is too long for any attention span. Listen to your favorite songs from Act I: The Lake South, The River North by The Dear Hunter Now. But with each spin I found my thoughts wandering, the mind-numbing story becoming less and less relevant and those lovely turns of phrase that Crescenzo has perfected being more irritations than earworms. And it may be that, with time, I gain a new appreciation of this album. In the end I can only be this critical of an artist whose work I truly respect. This band is better with some rough edges. Indeed, much of what has passed for progress is the source of this album’s malaise. And yet they feel hollow compared to the earlier suite. The period pieces which appeared on Act II as “The Bitter Suite, Parts 1-3” get companions in Parts 4-6 this time around and it is an interesting barometer, showing how far The Dear Hunter has come. Here it sits flat with distracting orchestration that adds very little. Next up, “The Squeaky Wheel” is one of those straight up songs that The Dear Hunter usually hits out of the park. “Is There Anybody Here?” stalls all the momentum with its faux R&B. Unfortunately there are some less effective tracks after that. Its clever arrangement keeps it lively and even the mellow middle section works to the betterment of the whole. All of Crescenzo’s prog leaning come to the surface and it truly is a stand-out. The album’s centerpiece is certainly “A Night On The Town.” Clocking in at over nine minutes it is not only the longest song here but it is also the one that most directly connects Act IV to its predecessors. “The Old Haunt” returns The Dear Hunter to some of their rockier past and does, in fact, remind you that this is the guy who got kicked out of the emo band The Receiving End Of Sirens. It could be a hit in some alternative universe even though it feels ten years too late. This is the closest we get to the material found on Migrant. Despite its Arcade Fire meets Of Monsters And Men anthemic aspirations, “Waves” turns out to be one such moments. Don’t get me wrong: like all his work, there are plenty of stellar passages and moments of absolute beauty. Strings underpin many of the more melodic sections and the whole thing (at seventy-four minutes) is, at times, a slog to get through. There is a melancholy in these songs which the instrumentation only adds to. Not that there’s anything really wrong going on here, it’s just that I’m not falling in love. But after over a month of non-stop listens it is clear that this may be the weakest in the series.
To say I was excited about this installment is an understatement.
Now back to what has been planned as a six record saga, Crescenzo still sounds terrific but the weight of the vague and directionless story is affecting the songwriting. That record took everything he had learned from years of toil and tears and distilled it all into what I considered to be one of that year’s finest. After 2009’s Act III: Life And Death he (and his erstwhile colleagues, of course) embarked on a genre defying group of EP’s known collectively as The Color Spectrum, and then he released the brilliant stand-alone album Migrant in 2013. You have to be logged in to post a comment.Cave & Canary Goods/Equal Vision Records įire Note Says: Casey Crescenzo continues the Dear Hunter story – with diminishing returns.Īlbum Review: Since we last checked in with the titular character in The Dear Hunter series, mastermind Casey Crescenzo has tasted the sweet flavor of artistic freedom. I dig both songs that are out so far I like ring 7 more than 3 but still The band is currently on a UK tour and will embark on a US trek in late July. Act II was almost certainly the band (and Casey) finding. The first single "Ring 7 - Industry" can be listened to below: Act II was lauded for its diversity, but Act III almost makes it sound disconnected in comparison. In front man's Casey Crescenzo's words: " Antimai acts as an atlas of the fictional world’s last remaining metropolis, exploring its social hierarchy from the outside in." The band officially announced today their upcoming album, Antimai, due out on July 1st through Cave and Canary Goods. Last year, The Dear Hunter revealed The Indigo Child, a new saga that started with the eponymous EP as a prologue. New The Dear Hunter album by Raul Stanciu STAFF | 40 Comments
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