Mount Eerie - No Flashlight

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.

Do people actually enjoy this? This is masochistic.

FWIW, on first listen, I found this new one less overtly painful than the last, a little more digressive maybe?

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

ross, you should jump on that Andrew WK bandwagon we've got going

yessss

andrew wk should visit phil and give him a hug and a nice talk and phil will be much happier GUARANTEED

Okay Simon :)

https://i.imgur.com/MVWsl8f.jpg
In a painting from around 1915 called "Midsummer Eve Bonfire" by Nikolai Astrup that shines on my computer screen in 2017 in the awful July night
The 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 valleys
Wrapping back up through the fjords at dusk, offering like scars of mist draped along the ridges of couples dancing in the green twilight around fires
And in the water below, the reflections of other fires from other parties illuminate the depths and glitter shining and alone
Everyone 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 stars
These people in the painting believed in magic and earth
And they all knew loss, and they all came to the fire

I saw myself in this one young woman in the foreground
With 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 me
And 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 gleamed
You used to call me "Neige Éternelle."

https://i.imgur.com/xZNkFWU.jpg
There's another Nikolai Astrup painting from 1920, called "Foxgloves" that hangs on the fridge
And I look at it every morning and every night before bed
Some trees have been cut down next to a stream flowing through a birch brow in late spring
And two girls that look like you gather berries and baskets hunched over like young animals, grazing
With their red dressed against the white birch three trunks interweaving
Beneath the cluttering leaves, the three stumps in the foreground remind me that everything is fleeting
As if reminding is what I need

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!

Feel absolutely the same bud ^ water is my favourite record too

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.

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

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.

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

echoing meaulnes there. I'll echo KM too and say the song about the astrup paintings is really special

i don't think it's surprising, and i don't think the intent was masochistic or abusive, it's just the effect. and

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

it's not a failing of the album, or an indictment, it's just that vicariously experiencing intense unfiltered grief feels horrible (to me)

some bizarre hubris in this thread, as if it matters even one tiny little bit what effect this music has on anyone besides Phil

otm, static. i've said my piece already. phil is not making music to suit you.

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

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

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?

maybe "disgusting" is too strong but... weird. idk

agree with the above. the notion that it's hubristic or even insensitive to criticise this as music is deranged

phil's a big lad, he can look after himself

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

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.

to clarify, i disagree w both statements

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

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.

this applies to all music criticism. eric otm

http://www.talkhouse.com/autographing-im-sorry-please-no-id-much-rather-not-sign-record-sorry-please/

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

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

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

This album is astonishing

certainly different to the last, but maybe just as good.

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

He figured out how to make Kozelek's current shtick listenable/meaningful.

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.

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.

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.

lots of press/interviews for Now Only that i haven't gotten around to reading yet:

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/03/mount-eerie-now-only-interview-phil-elverum/555485/

Totally agree, in that people might refrain from the new one, but 'Now Only' is indeed so much more that ACLAM pt 2. We have a rolling worst P4K thread, wholly justified, but that review you posted KM is absolutely wonderful. So understanding, down to the nitty-gritty, and so compassionate in judging this new album on its merits, instead of just on its narrative. The latter, I can see why, would scare away a lot of people. But 'Now Only' is a beautiful beast, in its own right.

from that atlantic interview, it sounds like there might be more to come in this vein:

Kornhaber: Was there any trepidation about doing two albums in a row in the same mode, on this same topic?

Elverum: Not at all. It wasn’t over. I had more to say still. And I didn’t want to stay in that feeling of A Crow Looked at Me. I knew the only way out of it was to continue writing songs. There wasn’t even really a gap in the production. I just kept writing.

I almost made Now Only a lot longer—there was this one song I’ve been trying to write for a long time, and I’m still chewing on that. That would be part three. Three seems like a good number to wrap up with and then do something else.

Kornhaber: So it might be a trilogy.

Elverum: Maybe, but I’m not holding too tight to that idea. I have been feeling happier lately, and more healed. I don’t think there’s going to be an end to grief. It’s a lifelong process and this loss will be with me forever. But lately I’ve been not dwelling in it so much.

in a reddit AMA recently he mentioned that Benji was an influence on the lyrics of the last two albums, as it helped him to realise that poetry and metaphor could be abandoned for blank honesty

of course, this album is much much better than any of Kozelek's recent material

there's a little bit on that in the atlantic interview, too:

Kornhaber: Death is one of the great topics of art through history. Did anything about how culture has portrayed grief ring false to you once you went through it yourself?

Elverum: It all felt false. In my time of being just destroyed, I went through all my poetry books and nothing spoke to me.

No, that’s not true—there’s this one Gary Snyder poem [“Go Now”] that cracked things open for me in a really useful way. It’s written basically in the same style as A Crow Looked at Me, very graphic about the mechanics of disease and the death of his wife: the cremation, the smell, her teeth jutting out. No poetry involved. Just describing it. That opened up for me the idea of I don’t have to interpret this. I don’t have to make it pretty or find wisdom in it at all. It’s okay to just describe what happened, then leave it at that. There’s no lesson.

Listened to this straight through today, sat in my local university library staring st the snow. It was perfect. I can remember entire sections of the lyrics, impressionistically at least - like it was transfusion as much as listening. Almost tempted to say I'll never listen to it again.

Meet Phil Elverum, Michelle Williams’s husband. The actress married the acclaimed singer-songwriter (who performs as Mount Eerie) this month. https://t.co/qNBmtHFxIr

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2018

uh

WOW

I really don't care about this sort of thing at all normally but this is cuet, good for them imo

yeah good for them! also what