All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Lost At Sea

Hospice sits squarely in this camp, a heartbreaking aural experience that hits us on a deeper level.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

There’s a straightforward appeal to the album’s dynamism and fatalism, but that appeal swells with each close listen.

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musicOMH.com

Hospice succeeds by conveying deeply personal traumas as universally appreciable truths, until one man's lonely, painful catharsis transmogrifies into something panoramic and shared by all.

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Hot Press

Brooklyn's latest greatest deliver heartbreaking concept album.

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Delusions of Adequacy

This quintet of musicians are making a name for themselves and with Hospice, they have remarkably made one of 2009’s best albums.

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Pitchfork

Hospice answers silliness with solemnity, jitters with nerve. Their band name simply describes their music: a delicately branching instrument of force.

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Filter

Hospice accomplishes volumes by the addition of drumer Michael Lerner and multi-instrumentlist Darby Cicci, creating an expansively profound album addressing life's most transitory and fragile states. [Summer 2009, p.94]

Under The Radar

Silberman's compulsion to write these songs may have been cathartic for him, but listening to them is most certainly cathartic for all of us.

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Drowned In Sound

Hospice is an album of white walls, long desolate passages, and sudden blitzkriegs of high emotional drama – it’s not always comforting, but the players are hyper-attentive to the nuances of each note and lyric.

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The Guardian

Somehow, the lighter Hospice gets, the heavier it hits.

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PopMatters

Hospice is a fully-realized and fully-functional concept album.

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Prefix Magazine

Hospice mixes the personal and fictional in a way that few indie albums outside releases from Arcade Fire and Neutral Milk Hotel tend to do. Granted, Antlers aren’t in that league yet, but Hospice positions them as one of the more exciting young bands in indie rock today.

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NOW Magazine

Hospice isn’t uplifting or hopeful; it explores themes of dejection through delicate, beautiful sounds.

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Sputnikmusic

It’s obvious Hospice is an album Silberman made for himself, one that we’re just privileged to listen to and enjoy. So sit back, listen, and consider yourself lucky, punk.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Hospice is a work of rare beauty and a watershed moment in The Antlers’ career.

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Uncut

Best is "Sylvia", where Bon Iver's intimacy, Arcade Fire's ambition, Sigur Ros' other-worldly reach and Flaming Lips' psych experimentalism collide. [Dec 2009, p. 98]

Q Magazine

A musical vigil primed to cut a path from bedside to festival stage. [Dec 2009, p. 111]

Alternative Press

It's a tidy package that's well-planned and executed, but with a few pop songs so well written, it's easy to want the band to shift directions and let the post-rock go by the wayside. [Sep 2009, p.100]

Spin

Hospice is packed with lofty choruses and extended instrumental passages (the alternately elegiac and tedious 'Atrophy'). But with emotional drama in abundance (mostly from vocalist Peter Silberman’s fiery, tormented shouts), sonic indulgences like the astral guitar blasts on “Thirteen” offer genuine catharsis.

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cokemachineglow

As a breakup narrative, it’s successful. As pop music, it’s either too insular or simply unable to turn Silberman’s own experience into something one would desire to revisit.

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Mojo

This soaring album defines emotional shoegazing. [Dec 2009, p. 101]

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 9.4 (out of 10) based on 54 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Adrian C gave it a9:
The union of his clearly and calm voice with the melodies and the history behind the lyrics just gets through all my senses!! After hearing 5 times in a road this album i love it more every time... simply one of this years best albums!!

Goliath R gave it a10:
I can count on my fingers the number of records I can sit down and listen to all the way through repeatedly. Hospice is one of them. Easily my favorite album of 2009. 10 is deserved.

Chris K gave it a10:
Sad, touching, beautiful, and occasionally rocking. The best album I've heard this year.

Nathaniel T gave it a10:
Sometimes I struggle not to cry when listening to this. Perhaps I'm not so cynical after all, or perhaps this is just incredibly powerful?

charlie m gave it a10:
Hands down, favorite album of the decade. No joke. Unbelievably powerful.

Cribb . gave it a9:
Great album, one of the years best. Full of emotion, raw and powerful. Fantastic for a debut and highly recommended.

Satre N gave it a10:
One of the most powerful and tragic albums I have ever heard, it has this broad scope of melancholy emotions that just brings you to your knees. I think this has to be one of best albums of this decade.

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Hospice

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