Green To Gold

While Brooklyn duo the Antlers sublime blend of chamber-pop arrangements and melodic indie songwriting is intense and impressive, it hasnt always been particularly uplifting. The bands 2009 breakthrough Hospice was built around Peter Silbermans beautifully ambient songs about illness, death, and suffering, and the lighter subject matter on subsequent records was still fairly heavy. Sixth album Green to Gold is the groups first new material since 2014s Familiars, and follows a time of uncertainty when Silberman was troubled by both a vocal cord lesion and auditory problems that compromised his hearing. Even with these health concerns and the life changes they brought on, Green to Gold is a turn away from the atmospheres of dread and anxiety that hovered around the Antlers earlier work, with Silberman turning in some of his mellowest, most patient songs yet. His delicate falsetto vocals and the groups gift for understated song construction carry over from the past, but they arrive completely free of the painful associations that formerly defined the band. Songs like Stubborn Man and Porchlight are relaxed, almost playful tunes, rolling by like a soft summer afternoon. A bedding of gentle organ and floating electronic sounds supports the bright and hopeful melody of Solstice, one of the more melodically straightforward songs on the album. There are hints of sunny melancholy here and there on Green to Gold, but the mood is never dire or eerie. The lonely guitar figures of Just One Sec add to the lamenting feeling of the song, but by the time the drums kick in, it takes on a more childlike melody, with any hints of unhappiness or regret falling away. The lengthy title track finds Silberman out for an early morning walk, taking in the peaceful silence of his neighborhood as lazy, slightly sad guitars drift in and out of the picture. Its a far cry from the end-of-life reflections and emotional wrangling of earlier albums, leaning instead into a soft contentment. On the whole, Green to Gold reshapes the Antlers once somber and brooding chamber pop into something bright and smiling. The songs strip away the sharpness and volatility the band reveled in on earlier albums to reveal a pleasant glow that was all too often hidden in the shadows. ~ Fred Thomas