Top 10 Best The Dear Hunter Songs
For those of us familiar with this incredible group, vote away!
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Red Hands
A riveting, emotionally powerful song that will most likely bring you to tears. Excellent lyrics bring a simple topic - having to end a relationship to make things better for yourself - and spin it in many directions.
Red Hands finishes with a dramatic ending that really makes you feel for the Boy and touches you in the deepest realms of your breaking heart. Pay attention to the lyrics, but don't listen if you're emotionally unstable.
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Waves
What seems to be an expansive and slightly different play off the beginning melody in "The Lake and the River" is a song absolutely chock-full of emotion and sadness, all tipped with a touch of hopefulness. You don't really need to understand the story to be amazed by it.
Anyone who has experienced leaving someone they truly love will connect with this song. Its main melody will choke you up, leaving you feeling suffocated under endless, relentless waves on a stormy ocean. Yet there's something more, something that reassures you that you can keep going.
The vocals are the highlight, but everything else is, as usual, undeniably gorgeous.
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Is There Anybody Here?
This one has a special place in my heart. An absolute masterpiece from beginning to end, with every instrument doing an outstanding job. The vocals are possibly the best Casey has ever done, and you can practically feel his soothing voice weave through your mind as the song progresses.
The melodies get stuck in your head, and after a beautiful build-up for the first few minutes, the song finishes off with a kick-ass guitar solo that will melt your brain and leave you absolutely speechless.
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The Lake and the River
Close call between this and The Bitter Suite 1 and 2. Since this wonderful, epic journey of a song isn't even on this list as of now, I thought I most definitely have to change that!
One of the best songs ever written, to be honest!
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A Night On the Town
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In Cauda Venenum
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Mustard Gas
The sheer chaos and terror in this song make it stand out as one of the best songs The Dear Hunter has ever written. The lyrics during the chorus are desperate, painful, and searching for a reason for the awful, awful war the protagonist is living.
The absolute anarchy in this song, the powerful riffs and chorus, and the chilling ending which holds some sort of powerful hope and terror are in perfect synchronization throughout the song. It includes some stellar guitar work. Eerie, just eerie.
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Smiling Swine
Starts hard, happy, and right off the bat, with a seemingly appropriate nod to The Beatles' "A Day in the Life." Many different story elements are happening in this song, and an early glimpse at the Priest is given to us - an unsettling glimpse, at that.
But it doesn't matter, because we're happy, and we don't care about anything besides the girl we've just fallen in love with. The latter half of the song deals with that matter in the most beautiful and joyous way possible.
Smiling Swine is guaranteed to make you grin like an idiot.
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The Bitter Suite 1 and 2: Meeting Ms. Leading and Through the Dime
Begins soft, gentle, and uncertain - like stepping into hot water. It eventually gets very hot, indeed. After a sweet and sour introduction, the song breaks into a rocking riff, throwing you into a real 19th-century city where you've met the most beautiful woman in the world, and she's rocking that world for you.
Everything about this song is just so cool, but the bass absolutely drives it to the end. Bottom line? It's just badass.
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The Moon / Awake
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The Church and the Dime
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The Oracles on the Delphi Express
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The Old Haunt
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The Bitter Suite 3: Embrace
This song has something truly beautiful about it. Casey perfectly captures the emotions in the Boy's mind, pairing it with the dramatic irony it presents to give it a completely different edge.
He's fallen in love (and is making love), which is incredibly portrayed in the beginning. The fact that his lover, Ms. Leading, is a prostitute and that he's too naive to understand the consequences gives this song its depressing and hopeless twist.
The notion that he feels this will last forever, but it truthfully won't, and that his lover is completely aware of that, adds depth. The song is full of gorgeous piano from beginning to end, finishing with an emotionally-charged, powerful guitar-driven ending that completely messes with your heart.
The soft, chilling bass line at the very end of the song deserves its own mention. Another masterpiece.
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Lillian (Violet)
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At the End of the Earth
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Tripping In Triplets (Blue)
A refreshing break from The Dear Hunter's complex and extensive story arc, Tripping in Triplets off of The Color Spectrum is one of the most gorgeous and relaxing songs I've ever heard. It produces all sorts of blue images in the mind - gentle waterfalls in secluded forests, whispering streams, a stark, cloudless sky - among other visuals.
What The Color Spectrum effectively achieves is the ability for these images to be completely unique to each individual listener. The lyrics seem to describe a feeling of uncertainty, as if I'm lost in life, having fallen off the path and into a stream flowing in an unknown direction.
The acoustic guitar in this song is so touching and beautiful, yet also empty and lost.
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The Bitter Suite IV and V: The Congregation and the Sermon in the Silt
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The Fire
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Cascade
Powerful bass riffs and vocals. Rich contrasts. One of their best!
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The March
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The Tank
Captivating and haunting. I think this song has such a catchy quality to it, and it's beautiful. The song that got me into TDH.
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Gloria
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Life and Death
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The Poison Woman
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Mr. Usher (On His Way to Town)
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The Most Cursed of Hands / Who Am I