neatoo

looks like we're in for a whole album of Violet songs, gonna dial my expectations down a bit

Not as amazing as "A Night on the Town" but pretty solid

Sounds good to me

Holy crap.

I listened to TDH's first two albums, couldn't get over how ridiculously pretentious they were, and gave up. Is this what I've been missing the whole time? This is gorgeous.

Great song

@ProjectFreak Yes, this is what you've been missing the whole time... and shame on you for lacking the self-awareness to simultaneously be an amateur/hobbyist music critic while having the audacity to call one of the more prolific musicians of our times' life's works "pretentious" :P

"I listened to TDH's first two albums, couldn't get over how ridiculously pretentious they were"

But the pretense and bombast works so well with their sound and concept :[

beautiful song

"I listened to TDH's first two albums, couldn't get over how ridiculously pretentious they were, and gave up."

The albums are essentially a play in music form, so it's supposed to be exactly what it is. Pretentious is a word way too often used to describe music, just because you didn't like it doesn't make it pretentious.

If you're looking for something a bit less busy, try The Color Spectrum, it may be more up your alley.

lol.

"attempting to impress"

See that's where the problem is... Casey is just making music, the dude had a story concept that he put to the music he heard in his head and he's been doing it pretty much all by himself making it happen. Where is the pretentiousness in that? Where has he been trying to impress or prove anyone? Lol the pretentiousness is in the people trying to critique and judge him yo he's just doing his thing and objectively I think most could say he's been killing it. Yeah he uses big words and grand orchestral arrangements, and that could be called ambitious sure... but pretentious, nah. That is a word that should be used only to describe the vinyl worshipping, Morrissey and Radiohead circle-jerking critics here and on Pitchfork. Not Casey/The Dear Hunter

Too many people sitting on forums judging music when they probably haven't even written a song before. Maybe they played an instrument in high school or something lol. But have they ever performed in front of an audience with their own work? Nah. They're content giving arbitrary scores/ratings to the people actually out there doing it while collecting their vinyls and critiquing peoples' work while too scared, lazy, unmotivated or lacking the creativity to produce anything themselves lol.

I realize I'm ranting. It's early and I'm tired but this song rules and I think Casey is doing a lot of shit right. Really great musical mind, multi-instrumentalist, one of the best voices in rock music and the dude even straight up wrote a symphony. I think he's past the point of keyboard-jockeys being allowed to call him pretentious anymore, especially since if you've ever read, listened or watched to any of his interviews the guy is humble as shit

I agree for the most part omniscient, but I think ambitious projects do tend to have a pretentious air about them especially when they are put together with such huge arrangements. And to be honest I love casey and if it's pretentious music I really don't care. I am so damn keen for this to drop.

It is a more straight to the point song, not a sprawling epic like A Night on the Town, and I really liked it for what it is.

Good thing musicians who have ideas and are actually creating things usually don't limit their creativity for fear of ambition being judged as pretention by keyboard warrior hipsters on the Internet... if they did music would be so safe and predictable and we would be so fucked. Lol really would they rather artists not try anything new so all new albums can be given a 6.9 rating and be deemed "basically just a dirivative of Pavement"? Lmao

^ Wut.

Oh man, this is good. Very glad to have a continuation of the 'Acts' series.

@Faraudo mostly tired ranting. But spawned by how annoyed I get when the Pitchfork-types have the nerve to call anyone pretentious when they are the ones critiquing someone's subjective creativity lol. Also read: http://www.theonion.com/article/pitchfork-gives-music-68-2278

"pretentious
prɪˈtɛnʃəs/
adjective
attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed."

yeah but the dear hunter does actually possess an absurd level of merit...

Anyone who thinks ANYTHING on the color spectrum is as good as these two songs.......... Go home....

But FA REALZ. This is a good song. I am happy to see them go back to acts. Act 2 blew my mind when i first heard it.

The Color Spectrum was really good though.

@Toondude10 Oh of course it was. But the passion in each word and note in the acts work just doesn't compare. Beyond awesome. Bring on the rest of 2015! So much awesome music!

Loved it.

"But the passion in each word and note in the acts work just doesn't compare."

made my eyes roll...


great song great great song though

"@ProjectFreak Yes, this is what you've been missing the whole time... and shame on you for lacking the self-awareness to simultaneously be an amateur/hobbyist music critic while having the audacity to call one of the more prolific musicians of our times' life's works "pretentious" :P"

I just really miss The Receiving End of Sirens OK?

But for real, I love bombast and self-aware giddy excess, but I always felt Casey wasn't fully aware of how ridiculous early TDH sounded. It just felt self-important and honestly a little sloppy

Maybe self-important then... but certainly by now you should be able to see his vision all along. The Dear Hunter acts are epic as fuck

TREOS is really mediocre in comparison to TDH imo

except by far better

never listened to TREOS honestly. I probably should though.

Haha TREOS has one great record whereas TDH have been making consistently boundary pushing and emotionally captivating tunes for the better part of the last decade. No comparison really.

Am I the only one worrying that this won't reach up to the standard of the other Acts, mainly because they're so amazing and it seems inevitable that there's going to be a slump somewhere? Hyped for Act IV in any case

Hopefully that slump already happened (Migrant) and Act IV will at least be on par with Acts II and III_ Loved the first single and enjoyed this one for the most part so i still have high hopes

I hope that's true haha...I'm just hoping for something in the same league as the Son/Father suite from Act III and then all will be well.

If this keeps up than I think this could be on par with Act II

Yeah. I used a program to merge the files of Son and Father as i'd never listen to them separately. A criminally underrated track. I like Act III way more than Act II because it had more personality and more of a balance between bombast and emotional sincerity. It sounds like Act IV will stick with that type of sound. That's probably why i have such high hopes.

"Haha TREOS has one great record whereas TDH have been making consistently boundary pushing and emotionally captivating tunes for the better part of the last decade. No comparison really."

agreed, no comparison cos that TREOS record is by far the best work any of them will ever do

I'd say it's better than Migrant and Act I but imo Act II and Act III are far better

Act III is where it's at ya

if y'all don't think This Armistice is the height of his song-writing talent idk what to tell ya

II > III

"A criminally underrated track. I like Act III way more than Act II because it had more personality and more of a balance between bombast and emotional sincerity"

Agreed hard; Act II is amazing, but it was a bit bloated and some tracks just didn't hit the mark in the way I feel they were meant to (Where the Road Parts, Embrace). III is just all-round fantastic.

I agree but i Embrace is my 2nd favorite off the album. I felt like Vital Vessle Vindicates couldve been somewhat better although the first 3 minutes or so are flawless. The Lake and The River imo shouldve been trimmed town a bit as i feel it loses it's interesting spark at a certain point. I could go on and on with small issues i have with Act II and i feel like Act III corrects most of those mistakes.

I felt that II had more personality than III tbh.

You could argue that cuz smiling swine, oracles ect

Act II was more memorable for me. Sure III was a bit more consistent but I felt that a few songs dragged on more than II, which is funny considering the fact that II is a lot longer.

What songs did you feel dragged on? Life and Death one of them?

Nah that song was great but yeah some of the later tracks like 'Go Get Your Gun' and 'He Said He Had a Story' were kinda meh to me.

not to mention 'The Lake and the River' and the Bitter Suite tracks are amazing :-)

I wholeheartedly disagree with you on Had a Story but yeah Get Your Gun is weak. "Saved" kinda bores me tbh

Agreed hard that Vital Vessels could have been trimmed; I usually skip the last three minutes. The Lake and the River is awesome from start to end though.

Go Get Your Gun is kinda fun even though the lyrics are stupid (the banjo in the chorus hooks me), but it's definitely one of the weakest on Act III (along with This Beautiful Life). Saved is nice but can be slightly dull. He Said He Had a Story is absolutely killer, a highlight for sure..

I wonder what they're going to do after the story is over. The possibilities are endless!

I really like the production on this. Lots of space and airiness despite not being that wide in stereo. Maybe that's what's good about it, is that I don't feel like I'm being shouted out from either side with it mostly being mixed fairly mono.

You guys hear the live acoustic version of this??? I love that and that's probably why i have slight disappointment for this. I was hoping it would be the "Saved" of Act IV (but actually really good). It's still solid but the studio versions approach seems alittle forced as opposed to the acoustic version

New song: http://www.gigwise.com/news/102066/the-dear-hunter-premiere-new-single-wait-rebirth-in-reprise-album

It's more basic than the last two but I still like it.

yea this is shaping up to be their worst album

You heard it here folks, Rowan says it's their worst album.

"Haha TREOS has one great record whereas TDH have been making consistently boundary pushing and emotionally captivating tunes for the better part of the last decade. No comparison really."

hold on, TREOS had TWO great records, 100% success rate

stop being so satly toondude jfc

TREOS >> agreed hard

still haven't listened to TREOS