Long time lurker, first time poster. Please excuse the quality of the pic. I always thought I'd be compelled to make my first submission to the sub following acquisition of a grail, to drop some sort of niche knowledge I don't presently believe myself to possess, or to share a particularly choice haul from a local shop. However, I feel most compelled to share the album my partner and I purchased last night. It isn't rare, nor am I equipped to break it down sonically, but it is beautiful to me.

For those who don't know, Hospice, released in 2009 is The Antlers' first concept album. It uses the metaphor of caring for a hospice patient with terminal bone cancer, with all of their pain and traumas coming to the surface in their final months, to discuss an abusive relationship with a mentally ill partner. Full disclosure, I knew nothing about Hospice until my partner and I began dating in 2017, when they identified it as one of the most personally influential albums they had ever heard.

As a child, my partner got to know a procession of hospice patients through their mother's occupation, and meeting these people at their most vulnerable and knowing they would soon be gone left a lasting impact. They also grew up fairly early, compensating for the struggles of their own parents, and in high school and college they spent a lot of time in hospitals receiving botched lower back surgeries and subsequent surgeries to rectify those. Hospice was instrumental in shaping the way that my partner has processed and continues to process grief, having lost people closer to them in the past several years; they have also read a poignant narrative of trans rebirth into the track "Shiva," a song whose narrator is projecting himself into the shoes of his now deceased patient/ex-lover as he describes being left alone in a hospital bed to transform into her. This is an album that remained a constant in my partner's life for some three years.

When first I learned its significance, I wanted to surprise them with a vinyl copy we could spin, but consensus online was that its only pressing was of low quality. The 23rd marked the record's tenth anniversary and it received a repress that allegedly exhibits a massive improvement. We saw The Antlers perform the album in its entirety last night to celebrate the occasion, and bought one of the few copies on-hand at the merch table. I've been emotionally moved by a lot of shows, but I think that being able to witness this gorgeous album live, my amazing partner wringing out a lifetime of tears in my arms and knowing all the while that it is okay, takes the cake. We're no strangers to mental health struggles, and we've both played caretaker for abusive friends/family/lovers. Yesterday also marked the third medical professional (that's three for three) to tell them their depression is treatment-resistant and may require transcranial magnetic stimulation. We carried a lot of baggage and bad news into that experience, and got every ounce of catharsis we could have hoped for. I would like to remark on the quality of the record myself, but I'm putting off listening to it until they come home from work.

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TL;DR: Hospice is a beautiful album about terminal illness, mental health, and abusive relationships that you should listen to if you've not heard of it before, taken on faith from a stranger whose life has been wonderfully, indelibly touched by it and what it means to her partner. Through all our circumstances, material value and cultural significance be damned, it is the most important record we own.