I really wanted to like Familiars. To date, The Antlers have a stellar track record of majestic space-rock. 2009’s Hospice was a head-trip of sad-bastard melodrama. A concept record revolving around the trials of spending one’s days around the soon to be dead. 2011’s Burst Apart lightened things up a bit (only a bit) and still had the utterly heartbreaking “Putting the Dog to Sleep” as an album closer.

So, with Familiars, I was ready to mainline some catharsis. Dimly lit room? Check. Tissue box? Check. Ice cream? Check.

Except Familiars isn’t so much of a downer as it is a snooze. Where previous albums were able to pick you up and then drop you on your head, the songs on Familiars instead tread water in a spacey groove and just… hang out. Familiars is literally nine consecutive down-tempo ballads. No build. No climax. No release. They’re so sonically similar that after four listens through the album I still can’t tell them apart.

The record isn’t without virtue. Album opener “Palace” is excellent in its downtrodden manner. It’s just the eight tracks that follow that fail to live up to its promise.