Irrelevant But Awesome

As always, we begin with a rough plot summary of the album. I'll reiterate just how rough it is seeing as how the album did just come out 3 days ago but I feel like it's about as accurate as we could hope for (source of the plot summary can be found  here ). Act V: The Oracles appear once again to remind The Boy of his fate but realize there's nothing more to be said to avoid his demise, they only hope it comes swiftly for him. The Boy remains under The Priest/Pimp control due to him knowing of The Boy's false identity and using it as blackmail. The Boy is ashamed of the situation he's currently in and wonders if there's any possible way it can be fixed. After a night of wandering the city, The Boy finds himself at the church late at night by himself, lamenting about the stresses of being mayor. The Boy feels like he's constantly watched and everything he tries to do to help the people, it's met with heavy criticism from the very people he...

We continue our review series of Dear Hunter's Act albums and we've reached Act IV: Rebirth and Reprise but first, here's a rough translation of this album's plot (source can be found  here ) Act IV:  The Oracles give a quick reminder that The Boy as now assumed the identity of his half-brother The Son and plans on fulfilling his promise to The Son to care for his mother (referred to as The Mother). The Boy expresses his desire to use this opportunity to relive the happiest moments he had with his own mother, Ms. Terri. The Boy deserts his post in the war and manages to sneak onto a boat going towards where The Mother lives, hoping the ship lasts the journey because of his eagerness to remember the feeling of love that he had previously felt briefly in his past. The Boy arrives and The Mother doesn't tip off whether she can see through the deception or believes he is actually her son but goes along as if he is The Son, causing everything to be well for ...

The Dear Hunter continues it's saga into the third Act in the series, here's a rough interpretation of the plot of this album (the source can be found  here ) Act III: The Boy is on the same boat he was on at the end of Act II when he left The City as The Oracles narrate what will happen if he continues and emphasize how he should've taken their advice but know there's no going back now. The story moves ahead in time a ways to find The Boy is now a soldier in The Great War but displays a fear he can't shake over fighting in this brutal war. The Boy becomes horrified over the sight of all the fallen soldiers and begins to pray for an end but gets no response. His platoon manages to dodge bombs in combat but comes across an enemy tank. His platoon fails at trying to overcome the tank and as he loses all hope, The Boy abandons the battle. The Boy comes to a forest at the edge of a destroyed city and encounters The Poison Woman. She had unpleasant experiences ...

The Dear Hunter continues into their second album in their storied saga, the true meaning of which is heavily debated but here's an interpretation we like the most (source can be found  here ). Act II: Ms. Terri (The Boy's mother) has passed away, after her burial, The Boy packs his belongings and makes his way out of the town he grew up in, going further from home than he had ever been. The Boy makes his way through the forest, deciding that he wants to know more about his mother's past, something she had kept him sheltered from. He finds his way to a beaten up train station and boards a train called The Delphi Express heading towards The City. During the ride on the Delphi, The Boy encounters The Oracles. They see The Boys future and warn him that The City will be the source of his unfortunate luck and advise him to return to The Lake and The River. The Boy ignores the warning as the train enters The City. As The Delphi runs through The City, the audience is told ...

As mentioned in previous reviews, the Act albums are what The Dear Hunter is most known for all they all follow a linear story of a character simply known as "The Boy." However Act I begins before he's even born but it establishes the environment in which he was created. So with these reviews, not only are we going to give our opinions of the albums but we're also going to display an interpretation of the story itself (something the band hasn't provided although graphic novels are in the works). Below is a rough plot summary, none of which has been confirmed by the band but it's the interpretation that I (Chris) most agree with and I feel it's the closest to the band's intention. The source of the summary can be found  here . Act I: It begins with a prologue to set the story of a child that will be born and gives a vague foreshadow of what's to come. After the instrumental, we are introduced to Ms. Terri and, as the song suggests, she is es...

The Dear Hunter: White EP The White EP doesn't really resonate with me, to be perfectly honest, not to say it's bad because it isn't but it just doesn't quite click with me. That piano-driven element that I praised so much in Violet makes a return and even gets kicked up a notch but beyond that, aside from the occasional moment here and there, I found White to be a bit bland and boring. However, don't let the color fool you because the lyrics cover some interesting topics such as "No God" which essentially reflects a distrust in any sort of spiritual being that gets the credit for things that people in your life contribute, a theme that carries over into a couple songs in Act IV. I will say this, however they mixed the piano in the intro of "Lost but Not All Gone" deserves an award for making liquid gold, easily the highlight of the White EP.

The Dear Hunter: Violet EP I know the song titled "Home" is in the next EP but Dear Hunter is back home in the Violet EP. The four songs in Violet are a return to their wheelhouse that we've all come to know and love with that piano-driven vaudeville theatrics that feature an expanded instrumentation. As we'll discuss in our future reviews of their Act albums, Dear Hunter is a story-telling band and even though they're not part of any sort of over-arching story each Violet song contain a short story within themselves. What I enjoyed is how all four songs leading in with a piano melody and then expanding to the full instrumentation shortly thereafter. It's like the piano is the bright red curtain the start the show and then pulled back to reveal the full production. The orchestral element is a major part of a lot of the previous EPs but Violet introduces a heavy hand of wind instruments and it all expertly comes to a head in the final song "Look Awa...

The Dear Hunter: Indigo EP It's tempting to label this a transitional EP in the overall scheme of The Color Spectrum but I would hesitate with that label because Indigo has a very distinct electronic characteristic that sets it apart from the other EPs. The transitional aspect is how Blue was down in a mellow mood and there's a certain mellowness about it that's comparable in Indigo as well as lyrical content but the electronic aspect makes the EP feel like an upswing. One of the more defined characteristics that distinguishes this EP from the others is the inclusion of an instrumental song called Therma (loving referred to be me as The Clap Song). I greatly enjoy this EP as it's a far reach from the typical Dear Hunter songs and yet it doesn't seem out of place in the slightest. There's an iPhone app called Pzizz that basically helps you take a power nap through soothing sounds at different frequencies and voices. I bring this up because you set a timer ...

The Dear Hunter: Blue EP I likened the Yellow EP as all the peaks and valleys of falling in love for the first and if that's true, Blue is like falling in love for the final time, knowing that the person next to you will be by your side the rest of your life. Blue ranks pretty high with me on the Color Spectrum album and it remains one of my go-to selections for times when I just want to relax because even though the color blue usually invokes a coldness connotation, that warmth of sound I discussed forever ago about Dear Hunter becomes prevalent only this time it's used to produce a more mellow vibe. My personal favorite song in the EP is The Collapse of the Great Tide Cliffs which obviously runs along with the theme of the album cover but it's such a beautiful song that I'm afraid anything I might say about it wouldn't do the song justice. The song is one of their more simplistic but Casey Crescenzo puts just as much emphasis into the silence as he does the...

The Dear Hunter: Green EP As far as personal preferences go, this particular EP in the Color Spectrum is hit or miss depending on how I'm feeling on a particular day. When I listened through the album the first time, I definitely was not feeling it at all and it was almost a year later when I finally appreciated the details and overall tone. On the surface, this is Dear Hunter's attempt at country songs with a healthy mixture of folk and singer/songwriter elements of the genre and less of the pop country that uses the words "cold beer" like a comma. And honestly, the faint twang of the occasional steel guitar is really the only element of these songs that make the genre bend from folk to country at least for 3/4 of the EP. However, by the time you reach the final green song, Inheritance, they've gone full folk and sounds like it would fit any Avett Brothers or Mumford and Sons album. Inheritance is one of those songs that have stuck out more and more as tim...

The Dear Hunter - Yellow EP The mood lightens up even further with Dear Hunter's most gleeful EP in the Color Spectrum starting with the blissful and cheery "She's Always Singing" which is ringing with happy innocence. And musically, that continues through the remaining songs although I would argue that innocence is lost a bit lyrically in the final Yellow song "Misplaced Devotion" and it's seemingly about a guy convincing a girl to cheat on her significant other. Sure, it sounds like the significant other isn't a good fit but still, it leans more towards blissful ignorance than anything else. Perhaps that's the theme of the EP, youthful emotions that lead to actions, some of said actions aren't the smartest but there's nothing malicious about it and innocent in intent. "She's Always Singing" is that lovely song in your head when you fall in love with someone for the first time, "Dead Don't Starve" is wh...

The Dear Hunter - Orange EP A few reviews back I described how The Dear Hunter has a sound quality that feels "warm"  and that remains to be the constant that continues through all of their albums, regardless of the specific genre each color is suppose to represent. Orange, as one might expect, leans into that warm sound a little further. However, the overall impression I get from this particular EP is a more laid back, bluesy jam session that finds its way into all four of the songs, especially towards the end. Each track gets at least one moment of unstructured brilliance that feels like a long, relaxing drive to nowhere in-particular while the sun sets, I'm making the assumption that's where the Orange color kicks in with all this. I've overlooked this set of songs many times in the past mostly because it has the bad luck of following the best EP in the Spectrum. However, don't overlook Orange too much because even though we haven't quite made it...

The Dear Hunter - Red EP This particular EP was a dream collaboration that I didn't know that I wanted until it actually happened. The Red EP includes additional vocals provided by Manchester Orchestra front-man Andy Hull as well as some instrumentation, if I'm correct. Essentially, Red is the love-child of Dear Hunter and Manchester Orchestra and the offspring is some pretty great music as two of the present day best songwriters come together. And if it sounds like I'm being completely biased, you couldn't be more correct because these are two of my favorite bands becoming best friends and it warms my innards. The highlight of this EP has to be A Curse of Cynicism because it harnesses the unique vocal abilities of both Hull and Casey Crescenzo. Speaking of, I've often wondered why Dear Hunter chose the Red EP specifically to feature Andy Hull because Hull can cover a lot of ground in terms of fitting into different types of songs. However, Hull is at his bes...

The Dear Hunter: Black EP The Dear Hunter has a rare chameleon quality about them and it’s the initial thing that struck my interest about the band initially when I first went through the Act albums. There are more capable music reviewers that can give that quality name but I can’t quite put my finger on exactly how they’re able to almost switch genre to genre from one song to the next and still maintain their identity. Dear Hunter still feels like they’re within their own wheelhouse no matter what genre is attempted. I will say this, and it might sound incredibly vague so forgive me, there’s a certain warmness about TDH’s tone in every song and even though each song in the different Color Spectrum EPs differ in vibe, this warm tone is a baseline that remains constant throughout so that no song feels out of place and yet each color maintains a separate identity. Just like a person adapts to various scenarios their own way, such is the same with TDH and the Color Spectrum bec...