I'm really glad to see that there's so much interest in
The Dear Hunter here as well. This community and 5/8 split just as The Dear Hunter were in the formative stages of getting recognition among our userbase. I suppose strong word-of-mouth and avid promotion from people like Soundscape, Ariich, and ZeppelinDT have kept interest high which is awesome.
This band is honestly on the verge of something big. They just need for that bit of "press" or whatever to pick them up and sweep them along. Pitchfork has yet to run a piece on ANY of their albums but I'm certain the publicity would do them a lot of good. (it was nice to see a positive review on Sputnik Music). Combine that with maybe a spot on Jimmy Fallon and BAM. There's no reason they couldn't be picked by a wave just like
Fleet Foxes and other recent indie darlings have been. (in b4 somebody says "but I want this band to stay small and special so I can see them at small clubs!!")
I don't like it any more or less than the Acts. It's a completely different kind of work and so not really comparable.
You've said a lot in this thread that I agree with but this hits the nail on the head.
I listened through all three Acts today. There's something... incomparable, between the two. Acts I-III are among my favorite albums of all time and have many of my favorite songs. The best songs among them are towering works that most of the songs on The Color Spectrum could never match, one-on-one (ONE ON.... OOOONNNEEEE! ok sorry). Think about that for a second - deep down you can already tell that
none of these songs stacks up to a "City Escape" or a "Red Hands". And yet, I love
The Color Spectrum *so* much for what it is. It's quintessentially
The Dear Hunter, and at the same time sounds "nothing like them" (mostly). Almost as though it's a new band. They've pushed into so much new territory.
It's just odd... I wouldn't even put it on the same plane as Act I or Act II, which I'd take to a desert island with me, and yet I give this work 5 stars as well. There's just such a wealth of good material. 36 songs, and the closest I come to "disliking" one is No God, simply for its amateurish lyrics. I think my rating comes more from the fact that my expectations were obliterated and I didn't expect such a massive treat from my favorite band at once.
Now for the obligatory "nobody will read this" part of my post (or maybe that was above?)
1. Orange (favorite cut - Echo)
2. Violet (Lillian - also the best overall)
3. Black (Take More Than You Need)
4. Yellow (Misplaced Devotion)
5. Indigo (Progress/Therma)
6. Green (The Canopy)
7. White (Lost But Not All Gone - in 7/8, fuck yeah!)
8. Blue (Tripping in Triplets, though the end of The Collapse of the Great Tide Cliffs is the most climactic and orgasmic moment on the album)
9. Red (We've Got a Score to Settle)
(but none of them are bad)