Familiars

"The Antlers' fourth album, Familiars, adds soul to their melancholia, with mournful horns and clipped, Steve Cropper-style guitar figures rather than frantic indie strumming. The warmth of the sound does not extend to Pete Silberman's lyrics: "I rent a blank room to stop living in my past self," he admits on Hotel. Each song is constructed around a repeated chord pattern, without a conventional chorus or bridge - perhaps a legacy of the Brooklyn trio's roots in DIY electronica, or their professed influences of Charles Mingus and Alice Coltrane. Despite their rejection of traditional song structures, the Antlers maintain control over proceedings: Familiars is no jazz odyssey. And despite the prevalence of mid-paced, piano-led ballads, it never enters Coldplay territory either".

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"Burst Apart og ikke mindst Hospice var begge fremragende plader, men som udgangspunkt bliver man en kende skuffet med Familiars. Der virker i perioder som samme vin - på de samme flasker. Den knugende patos på Hospice kombineret med den mere livsglade Burst Apart efterlader desværre Familiars som gruppens foreløbig mest jævne plade som trio, mens hærdede fans muligvis stadig vil finde momentvis genkendelig trøst".

"On their fifth album, the Brooklyn three-piece opt for something a bit unfamiliar: The nine tracks are grounded in jazzier, spacier arrangements, filled out with trumpets, trombones, cellos and upright bass. It's a perfect fit for singer-guitarist Peter Silberman, who spins haunting tales of delusion, paranoia and self-loathing on eerie songs like "Doppelganger," "Hotel" and "Director," reaching new stages of self-awareness and sadness".

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