The Dear Hunter Recommendation

If there’s one music recommendation I would give it would be the band The Dear Hunter. I don’t really know the genre words to describe them, but Wikipedia calls them a prog rock band. It’s really hard to pin them down since they are constantly changing. Their latest album for example, Antimai, is much more funky than the rest which took me aback. If you end up listening to this band I welcome recommendations for stuff that is similar. I crave more.

Their signature work are the Acts I through V, a story spanning 5 albums. They start out more on the hard rock side, with plenty “louder” songs with a more screaming singing. This covers Acts I and II, and much of Act III, although I think it changes a bit half-way through. Act IV marks a changing point I’d say, where they incorporate more instrumental complexity and feel more orchestral. Act V is subtitled “Hymns with the Devil in Confessional” which I think describes the sound as well.

I definitely recommend listening to entire albums since the songs lead into each other very well. If you don’t know which of the above to pick first I’d say Act IV. To me it’s the one that is, for the lack of a better phrase, “least offensive” (which does the album disservice, the better word is maybe “perfect”). Another good album to start with is Migrant Returned, although that one is standalone. Currently they are starting a new grand narrative project which is called The Indigo Child. The first album is called Antimai, and is a world building album. It introduces us to the world and setting of The Indigo Child narrative. So if you want to start on a new journey this is a good place to start I guess, although it is very different to the rest of their work as it is funkier and more focused on electronic instruments.

If you want to start with a couple of songs instead I have tried to assemble a representative list. In this selection of songs I’ve tried to order them such that adjacent songs are different from each other to showcase their breadth.

• Lotown from Antimai

  this features a sick bass solo, which is remarkable because I don’t know if they even have done a bass solo before (except maybe in The Color Spectrum, I haven’t listened that much to that album).

• Cascade from Act V

• The Oracles On The Delphi Express from Act II

• Shame from the Migrant

• At the End of the Earth from Act IV

• Let Go from The Migrant

• He said he had a story from Act III

• Gloria from Act V

• Patrol and Luxury from Antimai

• Dear Ms. Leading from Act II

• Things That Hide Away from The Color Spectrum

• The Bitter Suite IV and V: The Congregation and The Sermon in the Silt

• Home from The Color Spectrum

  When writing up this post I was browsing through some of the songs from The Color Spectrum to include because I haven’t listened much to it. This live performance stood out to me in how emotionally resonant it is. Amazing buildup. I think I need to listen more to The Color Spectrum.

• Girl from The Migrant, live performance on Audiotree Live

  This rendition of Girl is neat and different from the album recording in a pleasant way.

One thing they are very good at is writing “villain” songs. Out of the above, I’d say that these qualify being from the perspective of a villain, which makes them very fun to listen to for some reason.

• He said he had a story from Act III
• The Bitter Suite IV and V: The Congregation and The Sermon in the Silt
• He said he had a story from Act III
• Patrol and Luxury from Antimai

Another place to get a neat selection of TDH songs is from this Audiotree Live session. It features songs from The Migrant and The Color Spectrum.