ive pretty much been obsessed with the antlers album “hospice” the last few weeks. once i got over my miike snow fix, “hospice” became the new album that i had to listen to at least once a day. and with the low lows and high highs of the album, its tricky to get the volume just right to listen to the album at work and hear all the quiet parts without disrupting half the floor when the louder parts kick in. ive kind of been avoiding posting about this album because theres just so many good things to say about it. im not even really sure how i settled on one song to post because the album is so great from start to finish. i think what i like about it is how the lyrics are so sad and depressing but a lot of the time the music is just the opposite. listening to this whole album is kind of like being in some sort of dreamlike state. a big, beautiful, soft, loud, passive and bold dreamlike state.

the album tells the tale of a man being forced to watch the woman he loves die of cancer. the lyrics are extremely real and pretty intense at times and often in stark contrast to the music. while i chose “sylvia” as todays song, it could have just as easily been “kettering”, the utterly sad defacto opening track that sets the tone of the whole album both musically and lyrically, or “bear”, the track that starts out sounding like a lullaby describing cancer with the lyrics “theres a bear inside your stomach/the cubs been kicking from within/hes loud, though without vocal chords/we’ll put an end to him” and builds into a huge french horn laden song reminiscent of the national, or “two”, where we learn more about the couples torrid past and whose lyrics are almost too real and depressing for comfort.

but no, instead i chose “sylvia” (coincidentally ive already posted another song with this title by the aforementioned miike snow) after giving the lyrics another look. having recently experienced a close friend battle cancer (currently in the finishing stages of beating it, cuz shes a huge baller!), i can completely identify with the helplessness of the whole situation, wanting to help make things better but unable to do so. although in the case of this song, its more about a guy who basically didnt seem to realize what he had until it was too late, wishing for things to be the way they were before, best exemplified by the huge chorus that seems to come out of nowhere after the soft verses of the song:

sylvia, get your head out of the oven/go back to screaming and cursing/remind me again how everyone betrayed you/sylvia, get your head out of the covers/let me take your temperature/you can throw the thermometer right back at me/if thats what you want to do, okay?

and the closing lyrics:

sylvia, cant you see what you are doing?/cant you see im scared to speak/and i hate my voice cuz it only makes you angry/sylvia, i only talk when youre sleeping/thats when i tell you everything/and i imagine that somehow youre going to hear me.

whew. that was deep. im usually not huge on lyrics, but its almost a sin to not read the lyrics to this album while youre listening at least once. one of the realest albums ive heard in a long time, and hard to imagine something else beating it out for my album of the year.

the antlers – sylvia

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