Best Songs from the Dear Hunter's Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise

Act IV: Rebirth In Reprise is the sixth studio album by American rock band The Dear Hunter, and was released on September 4, 2015 through Equal Vision Records. The album is the fourth part in a six-act story. The story follows the conclusion of Act III: Life and Death, in which the protagonist assumes the identity of his deceased half-brother after the resolution of the First World War.
The Top Ten
1 The Bitter Suite IV and V: The Congregation and the Sermon in the Silt

Undoubtedly my favourite song on the album. Everything about this one just fits so perfectly together for me, the first section being quite eerie and foreboding, leading absolutely perfectly into the reintroduction to my favourite character of the acts, the Pimp and the Priest. Every song with him in it just so wonderful, due to how much charisma he obviously has. The lyrics are my favourite by the band without a doubt, and the chorus is so obscenely catchy. Easily the most fun song the Dear Hunter have ever put out, and I'd be surprised if they could top this.

2 A Night on the Town

Some of the energy of the past Dear Hunter is notable here, especially in the intro, which kicks off straight away with a brief section involving trumpets, before transitioning into some incredible melodies for the next 3 minutes, before mellowing out into a highly emotional, reflective section of the song. The reprises within are also exceptionally woven through, setting up the context for current aspects of the story amazingly, along with giving some great foreshadowing, all while taking parts of previous songs and giving them completely different emotion and general meaning, elevating them further.

3 The Bitter Suite VI: Abandon

This is just such a beautiful song, I love how despite the melancholy tone to it, there is this overlying optimism and also foreboding nature that is present along with it. While not much actually goes on here, the song manages to do so much with it. The drumming at the end in particular is excellent.

4 Is There Anybody Here?

I love how this song goes from a standard, yet wonderfully emotional ballad, to becoming quite energetic, especially with the guitar and bassline which I can only really describe as bouncy. This is a very subtle song, taking the energy that is so clearly contained in the instrumentals, and then executing them in such a subdued manner, putting great focus on the vocals, which are incredible.

5 The Line

An extremely pretty sounding song, with soothing vocals and a lovely acoustic guitar line as the main melodic element to the song. The song is simply packed with somewhat subtle emotion, having an overall negative tone to seemingly positive, happy sounding music.

6 Wait

I find the small sections of dubstep-esque electronic noise to be interesting, but the thing that really stood out for me in this song is just how oppressively dark the song is. The instrumentals are downright amazing in how well they create such an amazingly dark atmosphere while further topping this off with an incredibly sad, desperate chorus.

7 If All Goes Well

I love how optimistic this song is, with an overall nature that makes me want get up and dance along, even more than King of Swords (Reversed). I like how the song slows down and sounds much more like the desperate townspeople pleading for a better life, as they slowly become more drowned out by the other instruments as the sound becomes increasingly

8 Waves

This song lies heavily in the alternative rock/pop roots that the band is in, containing very clean production and very subtle use of violins, creating a less overtly orchestral track while still containing enough of those elements to make a beautiful song with a commercial sound to it. The "woah" vocalisations throughout also add to this overall sound. This song is just lovely all around.

9 Remembered

A pleasant song with nice, subtle orchestrations. The unfortunate thing about this song is that while it is quite nice sounding in general, there is nothing I find particularly beautiful in it, nor anything all that powerful either, making this song honestly feel slightly forgettable.

10 The Squeaky Wheel

The middle 5 songs are all excellent, very diverse, yet highly focused. This is an extremely fun, poppy song with an incredibly catchy chorus and some of my favourite lyrics on the album, due to the interesting subject matter.

The Contenders
11 The Old Haunt

The intro kicks off with a great rock sound to it, with great guitar work, before leading perfectly into a great riff that keeps the song at a constant, driving pace, before leading into an extremely memorable chorus. Each section perfectly transitions into the next, with parts involving some flute, with others focusing slightly more heavily on the guitars, but always returning to the excellent chorus.

12 Ouroboros

I love how this song ends the album on such a downer in terms of story, as always. The mysterious nature of it combined with the beautiful second half make this quite the good closer to the album, feeling somewhat unsatisfying, yet still fitting, considering how the story has still not reached its conclusion.

13 King of Swords (Reversed)

Surprise disco track is surprising. While the Dear Hunter may often have fun with many different influences and music genre, I still found this song to be extremely out of left field and surprising. It's an extremely entertaining song all around that while not containing all that much depth, is still a joy to listen to.

14 At the End of the Earth

The bass in this track is mixed in such a way that it creates this buzzing sound that permeates the entire track, which is a really cool effect that fits with the slightly darker tone to the song. I also appreciate the focus on the backing vocals, while Casey sings powerfully as always, but displaying a clear maturation of his voice since Act III.

15 Rebirth

From the first song, there is a different kind of sound to the band, a slightly more cohesive, well rounded sound compared to previous albums. The orchestrations used feel much more like part of the overall sound. There are enough transitions in this intro to be acceptably thought of as almost a complete song as well, making this a great start to the album.

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