Antimai Is A Great Album
Tuesday, August 16th 2022
Howdy folks, your resident goofball here! I was struggling to get this post started because I knew what I wanted to write about, but I had no idea how write it. There were several failed attempts to create some sort of opening ‘hook’. You know, how they teach you in school? Have an “attention grabbing lead” so that the reader doesn’t get bored in the first few lines. Well, that wasn’t really working out the way I wanted. Everything I could come up with just felt fake, something that had been written by someone else. Instead of making me want to read I would cringe and think, “Does that sound like me? Or am I just trying to copy what I see other people do?”
So, I’ve opted for a more conversational tone. These posts could be super detailed posts about a particular topic, with tons of research put into them, or I might just shoot the shit. I’m still not sure what I’m aiming for with this quite yet. Like, I could absolutely spend a ton of time on these posts and do deep dives into things that I’m interested in...but I can also be me and type what’s on my mind. And the thing on my mind the most right now is the new album by The Dear Hunter, Antimai.
Now, you might not be familiar with The Dear Hunter but I am going to give you the most basic rundown I can (if you want the full Wikipedia page then you should probably just...go to Wikipedia). The most I know off the top of my head is that The Dear Hunter is the creation of Casey Crescenzo, a multi-instrumental and singer. He was in a different band (the name of which escapes me right now) and he had the idea for this new project. And it wasn’t a small undertaking either. This was a full on concept piece that would span multiple albums, starting with Act I: The Lake South, The River North in 2007 and finally ending with Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional which released in 2016. A collection of EPs titled The Color Spectrum was released in 2011, each one named after a different color that contained its musical representation. They also had another studio album, Migrant, which was released in 2013.
The Dear Hunter first popped up on my radar sometime around the release of their third album, Act III: Life and Death, when I would have been in my senior year of high school. However, it was their second album that would pique my interest the most, Act II: The Meaning of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading. I want to say one of my friends told me to listen to it and I immediately fell in love, going back to listen to their first release before moving on to the most recent. Crescenzo’s voice and instrumentation were lovely, not to mention the overarching story being told across the albums (which I admittedly still don’t know very well). As future releases came out I would continue to listen and be impressed by the composition and musicianship that the band brought to the table.
Much to my surprise I found out they released a new album last month that I was completely unaware of. Being a fan of their music for quite some time, I knew I would have to check this out. It was already being touted as the Album of the Year for a lot of people and we still have four months left! Well, I can safely say these folks were not wrong.
Antimai is the newest full-length studio album from The Dear Hunter, beginning a brand new story. It gives you the layout of the city, Antimai, each track representing a different Ring, one through eight. Each ring also seems to be associated with different classes in society, ranging all the way from poverty to luxury, the final to Rings consisting of nature and “tower”. The music on the album covers a vast range of styles, some tracks feeling like full on theater productions. One track in particular, “Ring 3 – Luxury” (clocking in at almost ten minutes), starts off with what almost sounds like something straight out of Hamilton, before evolving into something quite a bit different. Songs like “Ring 4 – Patrol” and “Ring 7 – Industry” hit you with powerful vocal hooks in the chorus that just make you want to sing along (and perhaps even dance). There is just so much right about this album, I highly recommend you take a listen to it yourself. It builds on everything that the band has done before and is one of their most polished records to date. I’m incredibly excited for the rest of this story to develop and can’t wait for the next album to drop.
At some point I might do a full track-by-track review of the album because I just love it that much. I mean, I’m now listening to it for the second time as I’ve been writing this. Been trying to pay more attention the lyrics this time around. Though this bass solo in “Industry” is kicking my ass right now. Anyway, Antimai is just great. Everything is so clean and you can tell it took a lot of effort to put this together. There are so many different parts to every track that work together to make it the whole and every track works together to make the album so wonderful. I could gush about this all day honestly, it is just that good. But I won’t. In fact, I think I’ll just leave you with this: This album is amazing, go listen to it.