With this rewarding album, The Antlers take the band’s wounds and find glimmers of redemption and hope.
Its lack of immediacy may make Familiars feel as out of time as reading verse poetry by a stream, but listeners who remain patient will likely end up enlightened and fulfilled.
Familiars isn't a record that will immediately jump out and grab the listener, but one designed to coerce and shrewdly pique interest for another listen until they're eventually seduced.
The sumptuous manner in which Familiars presents its fabulously complex thematic approach is now, beyond any doubt, The Antlers’ trademark.
You’d be hard-pressed to find anything within a stone’s throw of a radio hit among these nine tracks, but you will find a smooth, almost flawlessly cohesive whole.
There's a completely fulfilling aura that surrounds Familiars – perhaps because it sounds nothing like a product of three musicians and more like a natural progression of something much grander.
The end result is immersive, emotionally involving and (eventually) even uplifting – against all the odds, a treat for long summer evenings.
Familiars' may not be as obviously fervently intense as their previous work but the truth is its emotional weapons have just been wrapped in a beautiful bow.
The melodies on Familiars might be the catchiest and most memorable the band has yet recorded.
Familiar, yes, but The Antlers still have some exciting tricks up their sleeves.
Interplay between bright but distant-sounding horn sections and soft, simmering instrumentation makes every song a lush, glowing affair, recorded with a somewhat detached production that never allows for any one element to come too much into focus.
Poignant, lush and beautifully played, this is another predictably wonderful record from The Antlers.
Against all odds, they’ve become one of the most interesting indie rock bands working, and the stately beauty of Familiars is the latest satisfying effort from a band that continues to reward those listeners who give them the attention their elegant, secretly weird music deserves.
It all comes satisfyingly full circle, but Familiars mostly washes over you when it should be lunging for your heart.
Familiars finds the Antlers on a new, magnificent level of heavy songwriting.
Familiars is bleak and dreary, potentially at the cost of dragging in certain spots. However, those willing to spend enough time wrapped in its moody embrace will be rewarded with a quite beautiful experience.
This is beautiful music, but after so many nights of losing teeth, it all too often is without them.
The extremely subtle musical template that The Antlers have adopted here only avoids grating as a whole by the end of the record because the songs get stronger as the album goes on.
It may not have the same somber storyline as "Hospice", but "Familiars" makes up for it with everything else. Peter Silberman's falsetto has been fine-tuned to perfection on this record, and his thought-provoking songwriting is at peak form. Meanwhile, the production is beautifully-haunting, with great guitar and bass work and steady drum grooves. Overall, "Familiars" is The Antlers' most seductive work yet and I can't believe how much I'm LOVING this band!
Fav ... read more
chilled out indie rock, incredible emotional engrossing lyrics, beautiful perfect vocals, tremendous trip hop style drums, great guitaring, amazing keyboards, tracks 3 to 7 all perfect exceptional songs, mesmeric and magnificent throughout
It has its moments, the performances and compositions are some of the most exaggerated and grand they've ever been, and the emotions felt are really damn potent, which is something the band has always been very good at but on here they're on another level. However, this is TOO DAMN LONG. Everything here should have been cut by at least two minutes because as it stands, this is the most bloated Antlers album despite it only having one more track than their shortest album, ITAOTU. The melodies ... read more
I discovered them thanks to the last album.
They're amazing and Silberman's voice is out of this world.
Fav songs: Palace, Intruders, Revisited, Parade, Surrender
#26 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
#30 | / | Sputnikmusic |
#34 | / | musicOMH |
#38 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#51 | / | Crack Magazine |