Folksy indie makes listeners long for summers past and present
Brooklyn-based indie band The Antlers just released their first album in seven years. Green to Gold is the soothing taste of summer people need and a firm come-back for the band. While The Antlers hadn’t broken up, they did take their time to do their own individual work—their last album they released together was 2014’s Familiars. But Green to Gold is a perfect culmination of relaxing music and comforting, poetic lyrics about change and acceptance.
In a statement written by Peter Silberman, he discusses that “Green and Gold is about this idea of gradual change. People changing over time, struggling to accept change in those they love, and struggling to change themselves.” Green to Gold sounds like a warm summer night, with the sounds of crickets and the lights of fireflies fluttering around you and grass between your toes. It’s inviting, simple and nostalgic in all the right ways.
The instrumental that the album starts off with, “Strawflower,” is sweet and pretty, and perhaps a little bit melancholy. The sounds of summer are playing in the background, from the chirping of crickets to the bare silence of an evening. Soon after is the song “Solstice,” which features airy vocals and a pleasant melody with the hopeful chorus, “keeping bright, bright, bright.” The song, like most other songs on the album, feels gentle and hushed but still light. The light strum of the guitar and the bright sounds of the cymbals and piano make it radiate summer.
“Just One Sec” appears towards the middle of the album. It’s a slow song, playing out like a summer breeze as it discusses the interesting concept of the act of “freeing” someone from other people’s perceptions of them. This act is definitely a step in accepting change, the overarching theme of the album. It’s about taking a step in the direction of loving yourself and others with your whole heart and not allowing other perceptions to ruin anything. The last line of the song is really incredible, ending with: “but by loving you imperfectly, for just one sec, I free you from me.”
“It Is What It Is” has some really great low horns playing in the background. They add to the long-winded, sad vibe of the song, which sounds like the listener is floating down a lake as the sun sets over the horizon. There’s something morose in the air, but people don’t quite know what it is yet. The title track, “Green to Gold,” starts off by conjuring up amazing visuals of the end of summer (“cicadas swim around the house, crickets clicking down the block”) and a beat that is maintained throughout the song. “Green to Gold” can perhaps just be about the end of summer and the beginning of fall, but it also sounds like the end of a certain point in one’s life and the start of a new one.
If people are looking for a relaxing, soft album to transport them to a summer of warmth and nostalgia, listen to Green to Gold. It’s a record that wonderfully encompasses the melancholy feeling of knowing that the summer is going to end and that change is inevitable.
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