Helicopter Seeds

“And now I

Foam to wheat, a glitter of seas.

The child’s cry

Melts in the wall.

And I

Am the arrow

The dew that flies,

Suicidal, at one with the drive

Into the Red

Eye, the cauldron of morning.”  

(An excerpt from “Ariel” by Sylvia Plath)

Two weeks ago, Nicholas Hughes, the son of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, was found dead in his Alaska home after committing suicide by hanging himself after a years long struggle with depression.  In the wake of Hughes’ death, the tragic life and work of Sylvia Plath seems just as ominous as it no doubt did after her own suicide in 1963.  Sylvia Plath was a pioneer of what would become known as the Confessional Poetry movement in which she, with a self-wounding honesty, grappled with themes of death, depression, and tragedy.  In both style and substance the latest album from Peter Silberman’s The Antlers very much embodies the tragic poet, Sylvia Plath.

In 2006, Peter Silberman moved to New York, somewhat ironically, to be alone.  He cut off all ties with family and friends and essentially sequestered himself in his apartment to compose and record what he intended to be an elegy for his planned disappearance.  Nearly three years later, the end result is ‘Hospice,’ an incredibly poignant, overly vivid, and intensely sad concept album that carefully explores the beautiful and terrible intimacy that is borne of destructive tragedy.  The overarching narrative of the album is that of a grief stricken hospice nurse assigned to take care of young girl who is terminally ill with bone cancer.  Incidentally, the girl’s name is Sylvia- a nod to Sylvia Plath as well as to the tragic novel “Sylvia” by Leonard Michaels; which recounts the suicide of Michaels’ own wife in 1960’s New York. 

As an album, Hospice is deeply indebted to the Neutral Milk Hotel masterpiece ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea,” as well as to Cursive’s ‘The Ugly Organ.’  Silberman’s aching falsetto is reminiscent of Bon Iver or Jeff Buckley while musically ‘Hospice’ channels a melancholy Deathcab For Cutie coupled with the art-rock tendencies of The Mars Volta or The Flaming Lips.  Much of ‘Hospice’ was recorded and engineered in Silberman’s apartment; which gives each track a certain Lo-Fi intimacy while careful layering makes each song seem rich and voluminous.  As the narrative weaves between dreams and reality, the music does as well, walking the line between melodic pop and ambient experimentalism. 

The album opens with the somber instrumental “Prologue,” in which minor key piano chords lie over ethereal noise swells that seem to simulate the sounds of life support.  This soon gives way to the expository “Kettering” where Silberman, in his breathy vocal, introduces the listener to his character and to the situation he finds himself in: “I wish I would have known in the first minute we met the unpayable debt that I owed you / Because you’ve been abused by the bone that refused you and hired me to lay down with that… But something kept me standing by that hospital bed / I should have quit but instead I took care of you.”  Depressingly evocative, the lyrics across the entire album are both effortless and painstakingly deliberate; the result of years of refinement by a careful wordsmith.

Silberman further develops his beautiful tragedy with the sprawling, two part “Atrophy/Wake.”  These two songs serve to book end the album’s central movement and clock in at nearly 8 minutes apiece.  The grief stricken “Atrophy” shows the influence of the Leonard Michaels novel as it clearly invokes a frustrated and grieving spouse: “With the bite of the teeth of that ring on my finger, I’m bound to your bedside, your eulogy singer… I’d happily take those bullets inside you and put them inside of myself.”  Musically, it is reminiscent of the quieter moments of the Wilco album ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ until the song’s final minutes when, as if to belabor the tortured point as soul is separated from body, “Atrophy” erupts into a grating swell of static, and guitar squeal, before yielding to a soft acoustic dirge.  It is profoundly depressing to be sure, but poignant in the way it delves into the truth and the tragic duality of love.

The album takes a brief detour from the Hospice theme for the jangly pop of “Bear”- a metaphor filled abortion lament in the vein of the Ben Fold’s Five masterstroke “Brick.”  The song is fascinating and incredibly effective in the way it portrays the turmoil experienced by the young expecting couple and a cynical view of the selfish decision making that precedes an abortion: “We’re not scared of making caves or finding food for him to eat / We’re terrified of one another and terrified of what that means.”   

The album concludes with the aforementioned “Wake” followed by the closing track “Epilogue.”  “Wake” represents the album’s climax, as Silberman’s character begins to find closure and redemption.  One of ‘Hospice’s’ most cathartic moments comes as Silberman reflects: “The hardest thing is never to repent for someone else, it’s letting people in.”  As the album progresses, the listener gets increasingly drawn in and there is a tremendous satisfaction in the rapturous final moments of “Wake” as Silberman’s Antlers triumphantly harmonize: “Don’t ever let anyone tell you deserve this!”

Sadly, the closure is short lived, as the acoustic “Epilogue” reveals the lingering guilt and haunting that often accompanies tragedy.  Silberman elaborately recreates a recurring nightmare: “But you return to me at night, just when I think I may have fallen asleep / Your face is up against mine and I’m too terrified to speak / You’re screaming and cursing and angry and hurting me / And I’m smiling and crying and apologizing…” 

Despite the intense sadness, ‘Hospice’ remains incredibly compelling in the way it effectively fleshes out incredibly complicated relationship dynamics and the truth that tragedy is very much a part of the human experience, one that profoundly shapes each of us as individuals.  It is an album that is very much the musical equivalent of the film ‘The Diving Bell and The Butterfly,’ in that despite its difficult subject matter, it remains uniquely beautiful and affecting.