Distortion is amazing, might be his masterpiece
― flappy bird, Thursday, 8 March 2018 21:55 (six years ago) link
i have to say, i don't really like the arrangements for "now only" and the first half of "earth", and they work against the lyrics in a way that seems intentional but that also out of character with the rest of the album (and the last). but really that's a small portion of the album, and it's bookended by the excellent pair of openers and the "crow pt 2" at the end
the stretch from 3:00-end of "Earth" is some of the most beautiful music he's recorded, i think. and "Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup" also opens up about halfway into something that i like more (and the paintings he's talking about are great as well)
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:07 (six years ago) link
Flappy ??? Masterpiece? Surely that's the glow
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:21 (six years ago) link
The song
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:22 (six years ago) link
you mean pt 1 or 2?
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:40 (six years ago) link
1
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:55 (six years ago) link
The way the drums phase rules my life
i love 1 as well. i always look forward to the closing loop with organ, creaking chair and the water being poured, the perfect sound setting for his imagery about finding shelter at the bottom of the ocean
On the cold dark ocean floorI felt warmth from behind a doorI asked to come insideAnd the glow replied
and somehow pt 2 is just as good, in a completely different way. i'm not even sure which one i'd pick.
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 23:00 (six years ago) link
Had the pleasure of seeing him play raw versions of many of these songs last year which may have been one of the saddest/most life affirming concert experiences that I've ever had. But holy hell has he transformed a lot of them. Powerful, beautiful, sad, all at once. "Now Only" is unreal. I'm down for his journey through grief. He's given us a lot of great music over the years, I'm interested to see where this goes. Love the album after one listen.
― gman59, Friday, 9 March 2018 06:17 (six years ago) link
Do people actually enjoy this? This is masochistic.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 9 March 2018 07:37 (six years ago) link
Eh it's complicated. I guess enjoy isn't the word. I probably only made it through the last one once in full. I think i cried while listening to last album on the train the first time that I heard it. And the live show was painfully sad. But I also feel like it seems therapeutic for him and I'm getting a lot out of it so...I dunno, it's like a heightened version of traditionally sad music. I can't listen to it all the time but when I want to go through the fire, he touches on grief in a way i haven't really heard other musicians do. And the new one has fairly elaborate compositions so it's beginning to feel like music again, but yeah it's complicated and I don't really know if I do enjoy it but it certainly floors me.
― gman59, Friday, 9 March 2018 08:45 (six years ago) link
FWIW, on first listen, I found this new one less overtly painful than the last, a little more digressive maybe?
― Simon H., Friday, 9 March 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
I'm with Moka. I appreciate Phil's need to heal but (perhaps selfishly) my musical interests rarely go to bleak places these days, the world is fucked enough as is to wallow in it
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 15:31 (six years ago) link
ross, you should jump on that Andrew WK bandwagon we've got going
― Simon H., Friday, 9 March 2018 15:34 (six years ago) link
yessss
― imago, Friday, 9 March 2018 15:35 (six years ago) link
andrew wk should visit phil and give him a hug and a nice talk and phil will be much happier GUARANTEED
― imago, Friday, 9 March 2018 15:38 (six years ago) link
Okay Simon :)
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 15:41 (six years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/MVWsl8f.jpgIn a painting from around 1915 called "Midsummer Eve Bonfire" by Nikolai Astrup that shines on my computer screen in 2017 in the awful July nightThe house is finally quiet and still with the child asleep upstairs so I sit and notice the painting of bonfires on the hillside and hanging smoke in the valleysWrapping back up through the fjords at dusk, offering like scars of mist draped along the ridges of couples dancing in the green twilight around firesAnd in the water below, the reflections of other fires from other parties illuminate the depths and glitter shining and aloneEveryone is laughing and there is music and a man climbs up the hill pulling a juniper down to throw into the fire to make some sparks rise up to join the starsThese people in the painting believed in magic and earthAnd they all knew loss, and they all came to the fire
I saw myself in this one young woman in the foregroundWith a look of desolation and a body that looked pregnant as she leaned against the moss of a rock soft to the side apart from all the people celebrating midsummer
I knew her person was gone just like meAnd just like me she looked across at the fires from far away and wanted something in their light to say:"Live your life and if you don't the ground is definitely ready at any moment to open up again, to swallow you back in, to digest you back into something useful for somebody"And meanwhile above the Norwegians dancing in the twilight the permanent white snow gleamedYou used to call me "Neige Éternelle."
https://i.imgur.com/xZNkFWU.jpgThere's another Nikolai Astrup painting from 1920, called "Foxgloves" that hangs on the fridgeAnd I look at it every morning and every night before bedSome trees have been cut down next to a stream flowing through a birch brow in late springAnd two girls that look like you gather berries and baskets hunched over like young animals, grazingWith their red dressed against the white birch three trunks interweavingBeneath the cluttering leaves, the three stumps in the foreground remind me that everything is fleetingAs if reminding is what I need
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Friday, 9 March 2018 16:43 (six years ago) link
xp drum phasing on glow pt 1 yes! 'it was hot we stayed in the water' will always be my favourite work of phil's. it's so creative in arrangement but still fairly minimal. im not a vinyl listener regularly but its one of those that just sound better on LP.
as far as latest releases, i suppose it's emotional exertion as it always has been with phil. it's strange to me how listeners are surprised of the explicit confessional nature of the past two records. he spilled his guts years ago in the Dawn journal/CD, and has always been frank and earnest in lyrics. of course there's going to be a lot of heartfelt emotional vomit, and given the nature it's a challenging listen... phils never worked a regular job in his life -- he's not going about things any differently than he has ever done, it's all he's ever known. given his self-sufficiency, honesty and commitment (manning merch stalls before and after his own shows!) he's more worthwhile of respect than any other independent musician i can think of.
if the new records are too heavy for you maybe consider buying previous releases directly from his store to offer support
i hope i dont sound condescending -- the microphones just changed my life and were instrumental in music appraisal, ethics and practice for me!
― meaulnes, Friday, 9 March 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link
Feel absolutely the same bud ^ water is my favourite record too
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 18:21 (six years ago) link
i'm with Moka, i couldn't get past the first 4 songs on crow, tho i also agree with Simon that this record is more listenable, less raw material. and yea i'm happy for Phil blah blah blah but at least for me the verbose and very detailed lyrics prevent me from accessing this material on a universal emotional level. even something like John Lennon's first solo album, yeah he's singing about his mom and dad and the Beatles, but the song titles and lyrics are very elemental: Mother, Isolation, Remember, Love, God... and I agree with something meaulnes said on the Grouper thread re: her record Ruins. that one is deeply personal, stripped down, very somber... but her lyrics are not easily distinguishable, and when they are, they're of a more general nature (i.e. "every time i see you, i have to pretend i don't / it's funny when we fuck up, no one really has to care") than anything on these Mount Eerie records.
― flappy bird, Friday, 9 March 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link
I feel like it's abusive toward a listener-with-a-critical ear to inflict upon them music like this. Music that is impossible to criticize, because it's come from a point of grieving, and this is how it feels, unadorned and unpoetic-- to somebody who is tangentially acquainted with the man and the deceased, this is frustrating music-- for me. Glad it moves others. I do not want to listen to this music ever but I would cook the biggest best meal for Phil and babysit for him whenever he needs
― nevertheless, he stopped (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 9 March 2018 19:34 (six years ago) link
yeah. but the artist's impulse to channel grief & negative energy into something productive is very real. i completely understand the intent and purpose but will never listen to it.
― flappy bird, Friday, 9 March 2018 19:36 (six years ago) link
not getting accusatory but I wonder about the underlying attitude to death and/or art that leads ppl to hear heartbreakingly tender expressions of grief as masochistic or abusive
the fact that I found the last album hard to listen to speaks to my failing to face the intensity of it, not to a failure to express himself in a more palatable manner
I don't understand the surprise, it's as if people think he could or should have done something else. his insistence on being the same gentle, self-aware, ironic, simple, warm person is what makes these songs so devastating, but also inspiring, like if Phil can keep being Phil through this then mb there's hope for the rest of us
― ogmor, Sunday, 11 March 2018 00:30 (six years ago) link
echoing meaulnes there. I'll echo KM too and say the song about the astrup paintings is really special
― ogmor, Sunday, 11 March 2018 00:36 (six years ago) link
i don't think it's surprising, and i don't think the intent was masochistic or abusive, it's just the effect. and
it's not a failing of the album, or an indictment, it's just that vicariously experiencing intense unfiltered grief feels horrible (to me)
― flappy bird, Sunday, 11 March 2018 00:48 (six years ago) link
some bizarre hubris in this thread, as if it matters even one tiny little bit what effect this music has on anyone besides Phil
― alpine static, Sunday, 11 March 2018 09:19 (six years ago) link
otm, static. i've said my piece already. phil is not making music to suit you.
― meaulnes, Sunday, 11 March 2018 09:40 (six years ago) link
i mean if you're sharing art then yeah it matters what effect this music has on others. not that it takes away from what it does for the artist but xp
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 10:50 (six years ago) link
although "for" is an interesting word, and i guess i have mixed feelings about what it "means" elsewhere, e.g. the new camp cope record not being "for" cis white men. maybe it's hypocritical of me but it feels easier to say it doesn't matter what the people a record isn't for in that sense think than in this case bc it's a kind of person, a range of experience to which it testifies (and thus a range to which it doesn't) as opposed to one single person's, which. if no one else's opinion matters, then the point of sharing the art is for purely transactional purposes. which is not a bad thing, i'd like to support phil, but certainly a piece of art has the ability to be more than that
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 10:59 (six years ago) link
and thus should be able to be judged on it. if that's the compromise of sharing art w the world, i think it's a fair trade for the medium's inherent commhnication. and i feel like if you don't feel that way it'd be kind of disgusting to listen to it?
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:04 (six years ago) link
maybe "disgusting" is too strong but... weird. idk
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:05 (six years ago) link
agree with the above. the notion that it's hubristic or even insensitive to criticise this as music is deranged
― imago, Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:09 (six years ago) link
phil's a big lad, he can look after himself
― imago, Sunday, 11 March 2018 11:14 (six years ago) link
you don’t have to twist yourself into a pretzel justifying your criticism. Phil put this music out, we didn’t break into his house & listen to it. the idea of any music being beyond reproach is incredibly silly
― flappy bird, Sunday, 11 March 2018 16:17 (six years ago) link
i didn't say it's insensitive or unfair to criticize the music. i said it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or feels about this music except Phil.
i was reacting to this bs: "I feel like it's abusive toward a listener-with-a-critical ear to inflict upon them music like this."
reading your own interpretation into others' words is deranged and silly.
― alpine static, Sunday, 11 March 2018 19:45 (six years ago) link
to clarify, i disagree w both statements
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 19:56 (six years ago) link
i brought up judgment bc if no one else's opinion matters, there's no point in criticism. not that it's wrong, just meaningless, both of which don't work for me
― lowercase (eric), Sunday, 11 March 2018 20:06 (six years ago) link
this applies to all music criticism. eric otm
― flappy bird, Monday, 12 March 2018 01:33 (six years ago) link
http://www.talkhouse.com/autographing-im-sorry-please-no-id-much-rather-not-sign-record-sorry-please/
― meaulnes, Monday, 12 March 2018 07:39 (six years ago) link
thinking back to the times when i would ask artists for autographs, age ~13-15, these weren't just "regular people": these were adults who looked cool as hell who made music that stirred your teenage soul who were in town for one night only. they were archetypal cool role models who inspired you to start a band. if they weren't my parents or teachers or used book and camera store clerks, how would i have any sort of regular social relationship with them?
as an adult i definitely sympathize with phil's position but i do hope that it doesn't hurt his soul when teenagers ask for his autograph
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:28 (six years ago) link
i said it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or feels about this music except Phil.
on a message board with people with opinions about music
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 March 2018 17:32 (six years ago) link
good review: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mount-eerie-now-only/
it does a better job of describing how 'now only' is different in concept and execution than "a crow looked at me", and it's clear the writer is deeply familiar with elverum's music
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 March 2018 05:44 (six years ago) link
This album is astonishing
― Davey D, Friday, 16 March 2018 06:40 (six years ago) link
certainly different to the last, but maybe just as good.
― jamiesummerz, Friday, 16 March 2018 12:15 (six years ago) link
I really love this album, much more than ACLAM which I respect but never really want to listen to. possibly my favourite of his since The Glow pt. 2
it feels more melodic than ACLAM and the long track lengths give room for the music to shift with the lyrics. the lyrics being a bit greater in scope than just the raw grief does help to make it an easier listen
― ufo, Friday, 16 March 2018 15:24 (six years ago) link
He figured out how to make Kozelek's current shtick listenable/meaningful.
― Evan, Friday, 16 March 2018 18:14 (six years ago) link
Yeah the similarities to Mark Kozelek's recent stuff are definitely there, but such different dudes. The paintings song is the one I'm going back again and again. Thanks to the poster upthread who posted the image also.
― in twelve parts (lamonti), Friday, 16 March 2018 21:33 (six years ago) link
no prob! i didn't know anything Astrup before hearing the song. His work is amazing and I'd love to see it in person. "Midsummer Eve Bonfire" is actually a series of paintings, so it took a while to figure out which one he was referring to specifically.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 March 2018 21:38 (six years ago) link
although i do think that Now Only is definitely so much more than just ACLAM pt 2, i can definitely sympathize with those upthread who still find the subject matter too uncomfortable to bear. like ufo said, the lyrics have an expanded scope, but there are still lots of very intense, painful, ACLAM-style passages.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 16 March 2018 21:42 (six years ago) link