Every so often, a song, or an album, comes along that’s so good it just completely stops you in its tracks. That the best discovery of 2011 for me was The Antlers’ Hospice says a lot about what I appreciate the most in music; I was almost two years late, but the intensity of the music and lyrics left me completely stunned. In a matter of months, it has become my favourite album of all time.
Its harrowing backstory does not need to be rehashed here, but in different ways I see parallels between Hospice and We Are Augustines (facebook/twitter) Rise Ye Sunken Ships, and we’re not talking about superficial ones like both bands being based in Brooklyn. The former is a document of an abusive relationship played out through the analogy of the relationship between a hospice worker and Sylvia, a terminally-ill patient; the latter, a record that details WAA frontman Billy McCarthy’s hard times as he lost both his mother and brother, the two mentally ill, the former a drug addict, to suicide.
Both albums were born out of an intensely emotional experience, and I get the feeling that somehow, Book of James, its title a biblical reference, but also commemorating Billy’s brother, is merely the tip of the iceberg. UK fans (those who haven’t imported the album already, at least) will have to wait until March 5th 2012 to experience Rise Ye Sunken Ships in its entirety, but the indications are extremely promising, because Book of James is an absolute knockout. Sounding like something akin to darker Fanfarlo material, it’s as musically uplifting as emotionally devastating, tackling the tough subjects of mental illness and homelessness and resulting in something that is a uniquely compelling song. We Are Augustines have already been picking up plenty of plaudits in States, and it sounds like they’ll receive further acclaim over here when the album is unveiled.
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