DEAR HUNTER, THE - Act I: The Lake South, The River North LP (Green in Cloudy Clear Vinyl)

Label: Wax Bodega

As the first official release from The Dear Hunter, Act I is also the shortest, featuring only 8 tracks, two of which are instrumental. The album is rife with beautiful, daring, and vulnerable songwriting. TDH mastermind Casey Crescenzo — who produced the entire thing himself save for his brother Nick on drums (the only other founding member still around), his mother Judy providing some additional vocals, his father Phil providing extra organ, and a trumpeter — sounds perhaps a bit less confident carrying vocals as a soloist (unlike much of his work with The Receiving End of Sirens, which was often in tandem with at least another vocalist) than he would on future releases. Nonetheless, it’s still a fantastic piece of work that deserves about as much praise as his future work.