The Dear Hunter- The Color Spectrum

A bands evolution from talented semi-hipsters to...REALLY talented semi-hipsters.

My first review and already I come across the issue of what new album to review. I frustratingly chose The Dear Hunter's new collection, The Color Spectrum. The problem with this is essentially that Casey Crescenzo is a crazy bastard, and decided instead of sticking to the short but sweet (oh so sweet) eleven song album I have linked above, he instead decided to confuse the hell out of non-educated Mediafire and BTJunkie users by releasing 9 E.P.s for each color of the visible color spectrum. If you would like to purchase or peruse this 36 song long vaguely-a-concept-album, here is the link, and by all means, kick back on your futon, take off your v-neck or heavy plaid shirt and immerse yourself. That, however, is not what this review is about, as I don't want to hate blogging before I even really start. We will be going into detail on the eleven song standard album.

First off, The Dear Hunter where not really expected to release this album, at least not by the conventional standards, if they can be applied to The Dear Hunter in the first place. They have released three albums before this,entitled Act I, Act II, and Act III. Now, slow down, before you start to get your tight jeans in a twist, Act IV will be coming out quite soon! By which I mean, there is no known start date, no format type, and no fucking idea when anyone's going to do anything about it. I guess until then we will have to make due with The Color Spectrum.

I use the phrase "make due" incredibly, incredibly lightly.

This album, albeit having a pretentious concept and motive, is startlingly good. I mean first off, Crescenzo got help recording the Red E.P. from Andy Hull and rest of the brilliant band, Manchester Orchestra. That alone is enough to check out the brilliantly driving track Deny it All off of the Red E.P. But the guest appearances don't stop there. Crescenzos old bandmate Brendan Brown from The Receiving end of Sirens, makes an appearance on the Orange E.P. The additional artists bring different attributes to the album, creating a constant stream of creativity that leaves the listener pumped up and ready to rage. Rage? Yes, Rage. Listen to the first song on the album, Filth and Squalor (black) and tell me that my personal favorite song doesn't make you want to bend your knees in a power stance and beat the crap out of someone that you love. And, whats that I hear? Massive use of Electronic beats and distorted samples? Well done, boys, well done.

As for the rest of the album, the majority of the songs are prototypical "Dear-Hunter-esque." Lillian (Violet) could be a b-side right off of one of the "Acts", with a haunting melody and dark orchestral backing track that will pierce you right into your hip little heart. But Theres Wolves (Orange) is a mildly progressive attack, reminding the listener of previous songs like "Mustard Gas," that made you proud to wear a bright blue v-neck and reassured you that its ok to be shy around chicks (or that hot hipster dude that says he likes La Roux in the same ironic way you do.) The only issue really with this album is that I don't really think that The Dear Hunter does a very good job accurately representing the colors with the music, but I'm not sure what they could have done to really change this other than shouting WHITE WHITE WHITE over and over again. In actuality, the only song that appropriately makes you "feel the color" is What Time Taught Us (Indigo) which opens up with an eerie orchestral arrangement and transforms into a beautiful glittery electronic song, which goes right back into a song that was made to make out on a mattress to.

Essentially if you're looking for an album that correctly corresponds to its concept, stick to things like This Town Needs Gun's Animals. But if you want an album that will make you move to the woods just so you can scream along to every single lines, than you should definitely buy The Color Spectrum. Unless you're chicken. CHICKEN. pussy.