Track Reviews: Two by The Antlers

The Antlers - Two

It's not very often that any singular song can move every particle of hair on your body. Sadly, it's more common that when such a song exists, not many people hear of it. Get it? Hear of it? Oh, the cleverness of me!

Before I start telling you what to think about this song, do me a favor and have yourself a listen. On your first listen through, one of two things will most likely happen. You will either get a little bored and pissed at the inability to understand what the hell main vocalist Peter Silberman is even saying, or your entire body will be overwhelmed at the inescapable emotion portrayed through each bleeding layer of the track in question.

My first time through, I was hooked. In fact, the soft and uttered breathings of the vocals only helped to pull me in to something that was more than I bargained for. I was just on the hunt for some great music that I could dance to, be thrilled to, kick back to, and here I stumbled upon a beautiful yearning that cut as deep as the lyrics intended. I kept leaning forward in my chair, trying to force the lead singer to sing louder, to be more clear, because I had to know what he was saying.

A lot of the times what the singer is saying is not worth actually knowing. The good thing is, this song is lyrically exceptional. Check them out for yourself. Here are some of my favorites.

". . . Something in my throat made my next words shake,
and something in the wires made the light bulbs break.
There was glass inside my feet and raining down from the ceiling,
it opened up the scars that had just finished healing."

" . . . Daddy was an asshole, he fucked you up,
built the gears in your head, now he greases them up.
And no one paid attention when you just stopped eating.
"Eighty-seven pounds!" and this all bares repeating."

" . . . Two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry,
two people talking inside your brain,
two people believing that I'm the one to blame,
two different voices coming out of your mouth,
while I'm too cold to care and too sick to shout."

Let's play a game: listen to the song again while reading the lyrics at the same time. After which, come back here and answer the following question.

Did you:
A) Immediately fall in love with the song and are now cursing me because it won't get out of your head.
B) Feel more tinglings down your spine than if Catherine Zeta Jones herself was giving you a lap dance while showering you with hundred dollar bills.
C) Feel no emotion except for a slight headache, though that's not really an emotion, and this song is boring and sucks and he sings too high and isn't as good as writing as Taylor Swift and did I mention the song sucks?

If you chose A, B or anything close, we are now friends. If C was your choice, that means that you probably need to make eternal amends with God A.S.A.P. because you will soon be with him after you turn your radio on and religiously listen to The Black Eyed Pea's "I Gotta Feeling" and Drake's "Best I Ever Had" until your eardrums burst into a bloody mess and you choke in your own pool of red and white blood cells.

But don't fret C's, there is hope. Well, not . . . really, I just like to pretend I'm an optimist.

Rating:
Fantastico!

Links:
The Antler's Myspace
The Antler's Twitter
Buy the Album Hospice (WHICH YOU SHOULD)