The Antlers - Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out review

The Antlers announced their arrival with one of the most melancholy and critically acclaimed albums in recent memory.  Titled Hospice, it was a concept album of sorts that dealt with the pain of everything from surviving a loved one's passing to unplanned pregnancy with overwhelming distress.  It was the type of album that crept up on you slowly, with each song building slowly to a crescendo of emotional anguish.  It succeeded by creating an atmosphere of dense, complex songs that tugged at the heartstrings.  Even the more sonically heavy songs like "Sylvia" retained this feeling, which helped with the overall mood and atmospehere of the album.

The latest single from the perpetually despondent Brooklynites is a bit of an enigma for the sole reason that we are forced to listen to it without the context of the entire album.  The boys from the band said that their new effort, Burst Apart, would be a step in a different direction, even hinting at incorporating electronic sounds to a certain extent.  "Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out" does indeed have an electronic tinge to it, in that there is an echoing little twinkle that had me searching for my mobile, as I thought it was ringing.  Peter Silberman's voice is also processed to a certain extent, although the band primarily sticks to traditional instruments.

The single clocks in at a little over three minutes and while I can't work out whether or not there is any significance to someone's teeth falling out, it is a tight, engaging ride.  "Every Night" seems to incorporate all of the elements that made their first album such a joy to listen to.  Vocal croons are left in tact, and delicate finger plucking leading into massive wails of electric guitar with bombastic choruses fuse together seamlessly.  The song seems to be an organic and natural progression in The Antlers sound.  That being said, one of the reasons Hospice was so good was because of its cohesiveness, it remains to be seen whether or not that cohesion reappears on Burst Apart, but so far, so good.

Listen to Burst Apart in its entirety courtesy of NPR.