The Dear Hunter Act III: Life and Death
Theatrical Emo Band's Newest is an Over-Indulgent Musical Mess
"Writing on the Wall" opens the album with Beach Boy like harmonies. It's a lovely sound and the piano work to that runs underneath doesn't do much to ruin the simple, lovely flow of the song. It's the marching-band, singing-solider routine that turns the song sour before it segues into "In Cauda Venemum," a horrible clusterfuck of regurgitated sounds. The heavy-hitting horns and rollicking rhythm recalls the theatrical punk stylings of World Inferno Friendship Society before Crescenzo comes in with an off-wall the vocal approach that sounds like Glassjaw front-man Daryl Palumbo doing opera.
"Transition 1" saves things a bit with some more of these sugary sweet harmonies, and bit of '50s radio pop orchestration. "What it Means to Be Alone" takes things back down a notch though with Crescenzo again attempting grandiose vocal inflections he does not seem suited for, while the music attempts to sound more epic than emo by embellishing simple guitar picking with piano and backing vocals.
"The Tank" rises to new levels of aural assault though. Like Marilyn Manson scoring Moulin Rouge! the song flounders in its own sloppy layers of pseudo-musical garbage. Crescenzo wallows like a cocky high-school theater kid, and strange metal undertones erupt to laughable effect.
"The Poison Woman" sounds as if Crescenzo spent time listening to The Decemberists, but never actually "got it." Added percussion and old-timey tones do nothing to help a rather simple and histrionic mess of a song. "The Thief" makes for yet another strange turn as it sounds almost exactly like Crescenzo's former band The Receiving End of Sirens before attempting an atmospheric breakdown, that just sounds like a kid messing around with a video game and an acoustic guitar.
"Mustard Gas" and "Father" continue a musical I wish I had never started watching while other late album cuts like "He Said He Had a Story" and "Son" seem as if they were never completed. The former features an attempt at dark and riotous stomp that merely ends up sounding like something Say Anything would have cut off an album, while the latter is a going-for-broke ballad full of every bad ballad cliché, but no memorable qualities whatsoever.
The theater nerd shtick was bearable when there were good songs to back up, now The Dear Hunter are just throwing in dramatic and pompous elements with no purpose. Just because you have access to more instruments and studio time and a love of conventional stage productions doesn't mean you should indulge them.
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23 Comments
Post a CommentWhen you use the word clusterfuck in a review you lose all legitimacy. World Class bullshit is what this review was. Poor comparisons and random rambling. Nothing of worth here.
Casey has stated before in an interview that he refrains from listening to other bands for fear of stealing their work. The Dear Hunter is a project that is pretty pure and isn't a clash of any other bands.
This was an awful review, devoid of any constructive criticism and full of blind nitpicking. Though I am glad to see you're using your thesaurus.
pfft... good luck with your freelance journalism career, bro.
douche nozzle... get a life..
that was pretty freaking brutal.. i just listened to the album and its not as bad as you make it sound.. like todd ive been waiting for this album forever.. and its pretty good, just gotta get used to it.
are you on your period or something? Did Casey turn down your offer for head? Do you have an illogical fear of cabaret?
you obviously have no idea what you are talking about. you are boohooing about the incompleteness of tracks, without even a mention that this is a concept album.
go turn your hate onto bands that don't even TRY to sound different. It's people like you who keep mainstream so utterly boring and mundane. Clusterfuck.
I think to review CDs you should listen to every style of music so you have an understanding of it all. Also, I can tell when someone who writes a review is not a musician. You completely missed the point of the album and you should go back and listen with more open ears this time.
First of all, The Dear Hunter is not an emo band. Second, this is a horrible review. Pseudo-musical? It may be faux prog, it may be pompous, it may be extremely layered, but that's the fun part.
This is by far the worst review I have ever seen ANYWHERE, you should replace the title with I AM A TOOL AND LOVE NICKELBACK because obviously you have no sense in musical talent. oh and grats on downloading the leaked version and reviewing it before the actual album was even released.
You know, they say it's easier to criticize than critique, and you failed to do either of these things, to be frank. What you did manage to do was sound like a Jr. High student or internet troll. Congratulations at being terrible at your job.
Laying down insult after insult that do nothing to actually say anything about the album in any sort of constructive or thoughtful way isn't what someone might call "reviewing an album". This review is quite obviously an immature, lazy attempt at being edgy without actually having to do any work. The fact that you could barely think of a single positive thing to say speaks more about your unprofessional attitude and disregard for true journalism than the quality of the album itself.
You should seriously consider a change in profession.