Best The Dear Hunter Albums

The Dear Hunter are a crossover prog duo from the US, fronted by multi-instrumentalist Casey Crescenzo, with his brother Nick Crescenzo on drums. Casey originally founded the band as a side project while he was the singer of the band The Receiving End of Sirens.

Musically, as their genre suggests, they draw influences from various styles of popular music, occasionally blending them with progressive rock. Their most common influence is indie rock, but their sound is also shaped by swing jazz. Additionally, certain songs incorporate elements of classic rock and electronic music, and they have even ventured into disco with one track.

The band, however, is even better known for their lyrics than their music. Five of their seven proper studio albums to date tell a continuous story in five acts. The main character of this story is the namesake of the band. While I won't go into detail here, you can explore this narrative in several fan clubs and online posts. A sixth act has yet to be released. The band has shared some mysterious hints about it, with speculation suggesting it may not even take the form of an album.

All studio albums, live albums, EPs, and even their demo are eligible for inclusion in the list.
The Top Ten
Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional

It's rare for a band ten years into their career to release albums in two consecutive years. It happened to The Dear Hunter with Acts IV and V. Musically, it has a slightly darker tone, and it is the last "rock album" of the story. At points, it's a sum-up of the four acts. For example, The March consists almost exclusively of reprises from previous songs, though those bits are all changed up stylistically.

It has a bit longer average song length than other Dear Hunter albums (no song below 4 minutes), which is a good point for me because their shortest songs tend to be indie rock/pop rock, which I'm not a fan of. With time, it might become my favorite over Act IV.

Best songs: The Moon/Awake, The Most Cursed of Hands, The Revival, Mr. Usher, Gloria, The March, A Beginning

Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise

While Act II is my favorite album of 2007 and the best songs on it edge out the best songs on Act IV, I have to admit it has a couple of fillers. Act IV is possibly the most consistent of the acts. After two non-canon albums (if that makes sense), The Dear Hunter returned to their storytelling after a 6-year gap in 2015.

While Anthony Fantano's claim about this album being 'overproduced indie prog' was certainly a negative opinion, it is true in a positive sense. Just replace "overproduced" with "intentionally over-dramatic and ambitious." Apart from the usual swing and indie tracks, it also has a surprise disco song (King of Swords, which I am not a fan of for obvious reasons).

The album is the favorite of many other fans. The ones that rank it lower argue that it covers the least storyline of the acts.

Best songs: Both Bitter Suite movements, A Night on the Town, If All Goes Well, Wait, The Old Haunt

Act II: The Meaning of, and All Things Regarding Ms. Leading

First, props to anyone who can remember that album title. Second, this album used to be my favorite from them since the highlights (Bitter Suite 1&2, The Lake and the River) outweigh those of other albums, but there are quite a few fillers in the second half of the disc.

The Dear Hunter's first demo, Dear Ms. Leading, from 2004 has five tracks from this album on it in their original form (I prefer the demo version of Red Hands). Overall, this was the album where they became a symphonic indie rock band, and the swing and prog elements took a secondary role.

Best songs: The Lake and the River (3rd favorite song of all time), The Oracles on the Delphi Express, The Bitter Suite 1&2, Dear Ms. Leading, Vital Vessle Indicates

Act III: Life and Death

The only reason I don't like this album as much as the other long acts (i.e., non-Act I) is that the longest song isn't even 6 minutes. The Dear Hunter tends to be more centered on prog and symphonic rock than indie in those songs. I have to admit this is compensated by the greater consistency and fewer filler tracks than on Acts II or V.

In terms of tone, the album is a bit of a darker counterpart to Act II in the same vein Act V is to Act IV. This is understandable since almost all the lyrics involve war (you can look up the story in a Reddit post called The Beginner's Guide to The Dear Hunter).

Best songs: In Cauda Venenum, The Tank, The Thief, Mustard Gas, This Beautiful Life, Life and Death. I also admit to liking the fan least favorite, Go Get Your Gun.

Act I: The Lake South, the River North

Their debut from 2006 is both the shortest album of The Dear Hunter and the one with perhaps the most progressive elements. With only 8 songs, 3 of them being interludes/intro tracks, leaving only 5 proper songs, it's hard to stack up against the other acts, but the highlights are the same quality as in the other albums.

The swing influence is much more prominent, and the prog elements are also at the forefront compared to later releases. This is interesting for their debut since Casey Crescenzo's former band, The Receiving End of Sirens, is less prog than The Dear Hunter (they're "experimental emo" if there's such a genre).

Best songs: City Escape, The Pimp and the Priest, 1878. Actually, all five full songs are up to each other's standards.

The Color Spectrum

Casey Crescenzo announced a break from their 6-act story in 2010. They first released a limited edition EP called The Branches, followed by nine EPs in 2011 centered around capturing the atmosphere of each color of the rainbow (and black/white) in four songs. 2012 saw a full-length album compiled from 11 songs from these EPs. There's also an edition of all the songs called The Color Spectrum: The Full Collection (that's the album cover you see here).

Although not quite the moods I would link to those colors, each EP really shows a different style. Yellow and Orange are rooted in 60s-70s classic rock/blues rock/hard rock. Red is grunge/post-grunge. White is indie. Black is industrial rock. Green is folk. Blue is art rock/soft rock. Indigo is electronic rock. Violet has approximately the same symphonic rock Dear Hunter signature style as the acts.

Best songs: Lilian, Mr. Malum, The Collapse of the Great Tide Cliffs

Migrant

The Dear Hunter's only non-concept album's longest song is barely 5 minutes, so you can already assume this is a full-blown indie rock record with some hints of their symphonic rock sound. They released an EP called Migration Annex in 2013 as well, which is attached to this album on the deluxe edition.

Best song: Shame

The Fox and the Hunt

This album (2020) is mostly only dubbed The Dear Hunter since it's performed mostly by the Awesöme Orchestra, who have orchestrated previous albums, with some instrumentals from Casey Crescenzo. It is based on the orchestral themes on the act albums.

As a classical fan, I like it more than The Color Spectrum and Migrant, but for an indie fan who got into prog through this band, this is most likely not comparable to other albums.

All is as All Should Be

An EP released one year after Act V in 2017. Most fan reaction was highly positive, although I don't find myself coming back to any tracks. Probably once again because of the absence of progressive elements.

Best song: Witness Me

Dear Ms. Leading

A demo released back in 2004 with five songs being early versions of Act II tracks and five deep cuts (plus an intro track). Not as good as other early obscure prog releases like Leprous's Aeolia or Dream Theater's debut but still a worthy listen for a fan.

Highlights: Red Hands (better than studio version, has a dreamy atmosphere the Act II version lacks), Economics, Camera

The Contenders
The Indigo Child
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