the antlers - rolled together

Peter Silberman can't get no satisfaction. Sweet relief just seems to forever be an oasis, shimmering just a never-shrinking mile across a desert of some deep hurt. This guy really just isn't happy all that much, but in a perverse way, that's what makes so much of the Antlers' music great.

Their debut, Hospice, received a bunch of critical claim for its emotional depth. Channeling some of the same feelings that powered the similarly moving debuts from Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, Hospice became a living narrative of loss and coping.

It sounds doom-and-gloom to characterize music this way; it might make you wonder if it's even worth listening to, if its only effect is likely to be depressing. Valid concerns, sure, but there's an edge to the Antlers that makes everything seem relatable. Yeah, he's not in a good way most of the time, but his songs are less about lamenting and inviting pity than they are simply about expressing what it is that Silberman calls being human.

Here, on the Antlers' sophomore effort Burst Apart, Silberman is less hurt and more frustrated. You can tell he's not exactly complacent with things anymore. The lyrics are maddeningly simple and opaque:

Rolled together with a burning paper heart.
Pulled together but about to burst apart,
Rolled together with a burning paper heart.

And that's it, just repeated. But built around a gorgeous crescendo, the words take on life. The layered vocals build over muted instruments until, finally, Silberman gets his catharsis. Still constrained by the pressing drum beat, Silberman's falsetto wail is an intense release, beautifully demarcating a sort of midpoint in Burst Apart where the frustration finally starts melting away, the last of it coming in the following song, "Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out" (a vague reference to dream interpretations of sexual frustration).

It's a song that requires some patience, and is probably best experienced in the context of Burst Apart. However, even standing on its own, "Rolled Together" is a bittersweet bite of emotion deprived only of false pretenses.