Review Summary: The Mount Eerie-est of all Mount Eerie albums?
I spent the last couple of Mount Eerie records on the sideline. I have loved Phil Elverum’s music dating back to high school as he was my entry point to a lot of thorny, lo-fi music that I ended up loving under his Microphones moniker. The Glow, pt. 2 and It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water were landmark albums for me in late high school. I began to see music as much more of an organic experience - something I could surround myself with and be a companion through life. Artists like Elverum showed me that the intimacy of music had potential power I never knew was even possible. That’s why when Phil’s life was getting worse, and mine was getting better, our stars weren’t aligning for the first time in fifteen years. Phil lost his wife to cancer in 2017 while their daughter was just a baby. My life was gaining traction with marriage, a home, and an impending child. The severity of A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only were a bit too much for my fragile and anxious mindset.
Since my son is thriving and life is at a very stable place, I was ready to head back to the mountains. Mount Eerie is one of my favorite musical artists as nearly no other artist I listen to (maybe Sufjan) has the devastating power to affect me this much. His music ranges from sparse soundscapes to gorgeous folk songs to blistering noise-rock that washes up against shoegazing tendencies. His lyrics and melodies are straightforward and sometimes nearly childlike in their nimble presentations. All this is to say, Night Palace brings things back to the epic nature of albums like Wind’s Poem and The Glow, pt. 2. It’s a sprawling album that ping pongs between every myriad style Phil has ever tried on. It’s sad yes, but a lot of the residue from his devastation is more muted. It feels like him and I have aligned again, and it’s a beautiful thing to have him back in my life full-time. I’ve since gone back and cried with those mid-period records too. Highly recommended, but you’ve been warned.
