The Antlers New EP “Undersea”
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It’s rare that a band decides to change their sound significantly. Usually, when they decide to do things differently, it’s a slight alteration: an added instrument, different drum beat, or a faster/slower guitar. One band who’s changed their sound drastically, at least from their last couple of albums, is The Antlers.
The Antlers are known for their sad, harrowing lyrics and sounds. They create beautiful music with synthesizers and guitars, but if you listen to their last albums, you may think they’ve been depressed. Severely depressed. In 2009, The Antlers album, Hospice, was just as melancholy as you’d think. The album was based on a hospice worker and a patient who was dying of cancer. It’s full of slow, transfixing beats and quiet words. One lyric reads, “In your dreams, I’m a criminal, horrible, sleeping around / While you’re awake I’m impossible, constantly letting you down.”
That was the album that made The Antlers known around the world. People fell in love with its heart-wrenching lyrics and hypnotizing beats. The Antlers felt they may have been stereotyped as a “depressing” band, so they followed up that album with Burst Apart. Burst Apart was just as sad lyrically but contained much more upbeat tones. Fans felt The Antlers had evolved in the album as they were able to show another side of themselves in a way that was just as transfixing as their previous album.
The two albums weren’t entirely different, though. The gist was the same: sad lyrics and calming melodies. The Antlers most recent album, Undersea, is something entirely different from what they’ve made before. They still retain the same calming qualities as they had in their previous albums, but this type of calm is less tragic and more relaxing. Listening to it makes you feel like floating in the ocean on an inner-tube, letting the waves drift you anywhere they want.
That was The Antlers goal: to make us feel “the serenity of drifting off to sleep or sinking to the bottom of the ocean.”
The Antlers Undersea EP consists of four tracks that almost blend with one another. The first song, “Drift Drive,” takes you on a journey underwater with a steady drum beat and a slow echoing guitar. The sounds combine with the lyrics to make you feel like you’re meditating. One lyric reads, “The planet drowns in a hundred days / dissolving into a million pieces in a billion places.”
The Antlers recorded the EP during a two-month period of time off. You can purchase Undersea by The Antlers here.
