Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise

"The album is the fourth part in a six-act story. The story follows the conclusion of Act III: Life and Death, in which the protagonist assumes the identity of his deceased half-brother..." Volume four of a six part prog-rock concept album series telling a seemingly convoluted story wouldn't usually be my kind of thing, and put me off listening to it for most of the day. What an error - it's great! I'd need an active listen to pick up on the story, but it sounds super lush. It is obviously theatrical, but stays the right side of corny. I love the way the music rises and falls, and ebbs and flows as (presumably) events occur. Rating: 4.5 Playlist track: Waves Date listened: 20/12/24

Wonderful! Enjoyed every second of it

Prog metal, with gorgeous meoldies and occasional poppy numbers. Being part four (of six) means I didn't pick up all the nuance of the storyline, but I am a sucker for a concept album - even if I don't fully grasp the concept. Brilliant, and would be a worthy inclusion on the main list (in place of any one of a bunch of filler!)

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: The old haunt, At the end of the earth, A night on the town, The bitter suite IV and V

Interesting! Reminds me a little of the Decemberists in that it's conceptual, literate, and the music is well crafted. I love the Decemberists. This is not quite as appealing to me on first listen, but I could see it growing on me with repeated listens. Will listen again and check out their other material as well. 4 stars.

Ok, I liked this and it was unexpected. It's probably because I'm a HUGE Incubus fan and the lead singer's voice sounded almost exactly like Brandon Boyd's at times. It's like if Incubus made a true Prog Rock album. If "Is There Anybody Here?" played and I had no idea who it was, I would swear it was Incubus (well, young Incubus). What a head trip. I'll be checking out their other stuff, thanks for sharing this one.

This is charming.

This was really interesting, although the concept was a bit lost on me and not particularly discernible from the lyrics. Nevertheless, it was a well played, frequently lovely collection of songs. Instrumentation was rich and nuanced and the vocals were incredibly expressive, although it did get a bit musical theater-y for my taste. Fave Songs: Waves, Is There Anybody Here?, The Line, The Old Haunt, Remembered

Like an album for a Disney musical

I found this pretty odd, and while it was skillfully executed by clearly talented people it didn't do it for me. The tone veered from evoking the kind of classical compositions that are favored for cartoon soundtracks to kind of standard folk-tinged alternative to rock-operatic somewhere on a spectrum between Jesus Christ Superstar and Pink Floyd's The Wall. I gather there was a story but none of it got through to me, and it was very long.

Progressive rock, indie rock, symphonic rock, experimental rock. Ni fu ni fa.

We all had that one friend in college who was obsessed with The Dear Hunter. So much so that it kind of turned you off from ever listening to them. They're fine! Fun, even! Kind of a more polished, less bombastic pop punk outfit. Cool. Good for you, Derek or whatever your name was.

Imagine if My Chemical Romance were completely hooked on Outlander. It's that, basically. Very OTT, actually more fun than I expected.

"Hey, it's me! Your bland mid-2010s progressive rock band." -The Dear Hunter

High concept indie isn't something I really like. I could hear their suspenders, beards and haircuts. 2/5.

Lots of these extended, narrative LPs have been added recently and they just don’t do it for me. This is supposedly the 4th installment of this band’s narrative series, and while the effort is incredibly impressive I have no clue really what’s going on without the additional context (musical or lyrical) of the three other albums. In this instance, I have to take everything at face value, and with many of these tracks feeling very similar melodically it’s a little exhausting to sit through 1.25 hours of theater kid level dramatics without a strong connection to why any of this matters. The execution is great, but at the end of the day this isn’t a standalone LP and it suffers from being presented here on its own.

Not sure why we’d start with part four of six for this album story. This isn’t Star Wars. This album was pretty fine. I d heard the dear hunter before and their style is very enunciated rock music. It’s very refined and focuses heavily the story and a decent playing of varying instrumentals. Overall it’s a bit too over the top in production and doesn’t keep my interest. 5.5/10

Honestly, I didn't find it relevant, they don't have anything that makes them special and it could be music from any average band and I even found it tiring since it doesn't seem to have a single hit in more than an hour of duration.