Twitter - it can be the cesspit of humanity, but sometimes, just sometimes, it can be marvellous, connecting you with like-minded souls from around the world. One of my lovely connections on Twitter alerted me to a recent "Tim's Listening Party", playing this album.
Maybe it was my love of new music, maybe it was the five pints of Guinness, but I played two tracks on the way home and LOVED it. Normally, any drunken purchases can be a bit dodgy, but this is pure (Green to) Gold!
The Antlers are the brainchild of Brooklynite Peter Silberman, supported by drummer Michael Lerner. Green To Gold is a mellow, contemplative album, its backdrop being Silberman developing a range of hearing difficulties including tinnitus and a rare form of Meniere’s disease, as well as a lesion on his vocal chords. Having upsticks to the much quieter countryside, his music has evolved as he got used to managing these new challenges and reconsidered the priorities of life.
The album is gentle, psychedelic, ruminative, peaceful, enchanting, delicate, light, quiet, textured, simple, complicated - imagine Talk Talk’s The Colour Of Spring meets Simon Felice’s side project, The Duke & The King. The album feels like a much needed warm hug.
Just One Sec is a man contemplating his future - “For just one sec, I free you from me” - could be singing to some former partner, or indeed to his audience as his music has through necessity evolved and changed.
It Is What It Is feels like a reflection on his options, given his health difficulties - “The call could've been answered, The wall would’ve been questioned, The fall should've been prevented, But it is what it is”. Its gorgeous, chilled piano and saxophone soundtrack some search for acceptance of what’s now done.
Given his new surroundings, the title track describes sitting watching some beautiful sunrise as the seasons shift from summer to autumn, surrounded by just the sound of nature - “No one’s up, and no cars on the street/Hiding from an unrelenting heat/Sun is climbing out from underneath.”
If you are looking for some Saturday night going out music (and we can go out again!), this ain’t the right album for you. But if you are looking for a beautiful, languid backdrop for a sunny Sunday morning, this is perfect.
For fans of: Grizzly Bear, Clap Your Hand Say Yeah, Broken Social Scene, Talk Talk, The Duke & The King