The Antlers - Burst Apart

STREAM THE ALBUM IN IT'S ENTIRETY HERE!

So the album I have been waiting for is finally here... Once I fully warmed up to the fact that it would not be Hospice 2, I realized how beautiful of an album it is.  The thing is, in a way, it kind of is Hospice 2.  Thematically, it is much different than Hospice, but narratively it sounds like it could follow Hospice.  The album is basically a story of someone who has been harmed by past relationships and has been disenchanted by love.  As the album goes on that slowly changes.   There is definitely more going on there, but from my first two listens, that is about as much as I have concretely surmised.

So literally speaking, it does not make much sense for it to follow Hospice chronologically, but we know Silberman wrote Hospice as a metaphor for a break up.  Considering that, Burst Apart could be interpreted as Silbermans slow ascension out of helplessness.

But I actually have evidence for this interpretation!  Mainly that many of the themes from Hospice are reflected in Burst Apart.  I could find many examples, but I will just start with a couple that really stood out to me.  The most obvious example, before even listening to the music is the song titled "No Widows", which I immediately associated with Hospice, because it is about someone being widowed and all.  But let's look at it lyrically:

If I never get back home

There's no garden overgrown

No widows in the walls

No widows left at all

No shirts to hang and fold

No kid out in the cold

No widows on the walls

No widows on the phone

If I'm stuck out here alone

If I'm stranded here or here

Just nothing left at home

No widows disappear

So there is this talk about widows, but I see it as word play.  "Widows on the walls" makes little sense, but I think he is implying a photograph.  The wordplay comes in because it sounds like "windows", and so it is like looking at a picture of a widow is like looking out into the world.  It is like seeing what can potentially happen when love is lost, just like in Hospice.  Also, the thing about folding clothes: I see this as a direct reference to Hospice in the song "Wake":

With the door closed, shades drawn, the world shrinks
Let's open up those blinds
But someone has to sweep the floor
Pick up her dirty clothes
That job's not mine

That song alludes more to clothes further on, and it also alludes to opening and closing blinds (like for a window, hmm?).  In "Wake", he is saying that it's someones responsibility to clean up after the relationship, but it isn't his.  In "No Widows" he is saying if you never have a lover, you will never have the lover leave you and you will never have to clean up any "clothes".

Essentially, the song "No Widows" has very similar themes to "I am a Rock" by Simon and Garfunkel.  Silberman would rather be alone than experience the pain from Hospice again.

I was also going to talk about one other song, but I spent a lot of time typing about that one so I am too lazy now.

I feel like The Antlers' discography can be interpreted like a story.  In the Attic of the Universe is about a very lonely, confused man having an existential crisis and eventually finding some sort of truth.  Hospice is about the woman he loves, who I am positing is the truth he finds at the end of In the Attic of the Universe, dying of cancer (if you interpret it literally), and Burst Apart is about coming out of a dark place in your life and finding hope.

I doubt Silberman intended this, but his lyrics are so personal, that they can't help but be interpreted that way.

That is all for now, I have a lot more I could type about Burst Apart, and the Antlers in general, but that is all I have as of now!