Mount Eerie - "Now Only"

Mount Eerie is the long time, singer/songwriter project of Phil Elverum, and one of my all-time favorite artists.   Phil had previously recorded under the name The Microphones in the late 90's and early 2000's.  But Eventually would adopt the moniker Mount Eerie, and made his debut with the project with 2005's "No Flashlight".  Now, this is far from my favorite Mount Eerie project.  Tracks like "No Inside, No Out" were incredibly tense, dark Folk tunes.  But for me, this project seemed immensely unfocused.  Phil seemed torn between this and his days with The Microphones, and the result came out as a directionless collection of tracks that more than anything sounded like a B-Sides collection.  However, quickly Phil got on track with his Mount Eerie moniker with 2008's "Lost Wisdom" EP.  Not only is this one of my favorite Mount Eerie projects, but it's also one of my all-time favorite EP's. Phil, alongside Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire came up with 10 tracks that sound so damn lonely and scared.  He questions life, he reminisces about past relationships and does it with this very Low-Fi sound.  The result is easily one of Mount Eerie's most concise works.  Phil returned in 2008 with "Dawn", a much more cleanly recorded and much longer album.  Once again, this album was just so cold, with Phil sounding so damn alone once again.  There were reworkings of tunes from "Lost Wisdom" on here, as well as a long-awaited sequel to "The Moon" from his Microphones days.  But for Mount Eerie fans wanting to hear Phil at his most introspective and delicate, this is a must listen, and a very underrated album in his catalog.  But with Phil's next effort, 2009's "Wind's Poem", he was about to take a hard left turn. This album was much heavier, and far from the gloomy Indie Folk of the past.  You still had Phil's very quiet, almost spoken word performances, but they were surrounded by Black Metal compositions and Noise pieces.  The result ended up making Phil sound more tortured and more lost than ever, and honestly, I freakin' LOVED that.  But of course, there were a few softer tunes sprinkled in as well to please older fans.  "Wind's Poem" however at the end of the day more than anything, marked a significant turning point in Mount Eerie's career.  Phil returned to the project in 2012 with "Clear Moon", the first of two album's he would release this year.  This was a return to form, with a lot of very haunting folk songs.  But to me, this sort of seemed like Phil was at peace.  So many of his recordings always made him sound tortured distant.  But on "Clear Moon", he seemed coherent and clear minded.  Phil's period of experimentation boomed on with "Ocean Roar", his second album of 2012.  This album showed Phil dropping the Folk (for the most part) in exchange for Noisy Drones and Experimental Ambient music.  Honestly, once again there was a lot, and I mean A LOT to love here.  Some of the more straightforward Folk tunes actually underwhelmed me.  But monolithic tracks like "Pale Lights" made it clear that Mount Eerie was one of the more daring acts in current music.  Phil returned in 2015 with "Sauna", and I was a little underwhelmed to be honest.  Don't get me wrong, there are a handful of really great tunes here like the heavy "Boat" and the glistening "Emptiness".  But all of this experimentation on Phil's part was just getting on my nerves over time.  I thought his early work was just so straightforward,  this was so all over the place.  To me, it honestly seemed like Phil needed a break to me.  And he took one, and for some time I thought we'd never hear from him again.  But you all know what happened next.  I'm not going to go into the story, mostly because it was everywhere.  But the jist of it, is that Phil's wife Geneviève passed away after a long battle with Cancer.  Shortly after, Phil got back into the studio, and proceeded to write his masterpiece, whether he intended to or not.  2017's "A Crow Looked At Me" is an absolutely crushing listen.  Phil here went toe to toe with death itself, questioning everything and often seemingly getting a little too close to the answers he looked for.  Death has been discussed in music seemingly forever, but "A Crow Looked At Me" takes us inside the mind of someone who experienced so much first hand.  It's not a fun listen, and it's not an easily digestible one either.  But it's a Folk masterpiece, and was actually my favorite album of last year.  Phil is back, honestly, I'm really surprised to hear from him so soon.  But from the sounds of these teaser tracks, he's only gotten better with time.  Let's chat about this.

( A personal favorite of mine!)

    This album starts outs with “Tintin In Tibet”, and right from this opening its sort of obvious that this is the next step after the finale of “A Crow Looked At Me”.  Now, I have some mixed feelings on the instrumentals.  What made “A Crow…” so damn intense was just how soft it was, and how alone Phil sounded.  But I have to say, this track as a whole is much more accessible with all of these added instrumentals.  Not so shockingly, “Tintin In Tibet” is a very sweet, endearing tune, that sort of goes over the first night Phil and Genevieve spent together.  Obviously, Phil’s near-Spoken Word, narrative-driven folk isn’t for everyone, and I can’t stress that enough.  Overall, I LOVE this track as an opener.  It almost in a way makes a lot of tracks on “A Crow Looked At Me” even stronger since that album started with Genevieve’s death.  This opening track as is it goes even deeper into their relationship, and just how perfect they were for one another.  And no, while it’s not nearly the gripping, grim Folk of its predecessor, this is still emotional intense, and a great start to this album.  On the other hand, I expected a lot of things on this album, but “Distortion” is not one of them.  The last album as so bare and stripped down, so I really wasn’t expecting to hear Phil go down this Drone-heavy, experimental route again.  However, I have to give him credit.  Here, the drone’s and guitars seem to just sort of relax in the background and Phil uses it just as a backdrop, and it’s done really classy.  Some of the imagery we get here hits you so hard, like that line of him telling stories to his daughter about his late wife.  But what continues to really impress me about this recording, is just how much Phil continues to go back to his youth.  He brings up his thoughts on fame briefly, which is’s been very vocal about recently, as well as his experiences with death in the past and thoughts on the afterlife.  Phil drops these lines that continue to be just so personal, but also really relatable.  For instance, there’s that one of him speaking at his Grandfathers funeral and him misunderstanding what they had him read, it’s actually a great snippet of a story.  “Distortion” is wild, and I feel like as Phil grows older that he just gets more and more open with us.  But that grizzly Drone that hovers in the background, reminds us that this is certainly the farthest thing from a happy time.  And of course, Phil ends this gigantic, near the 11-minute track with a tribute to his late wife.  Not to mention, I’m actually really amazed by just how much his thoughts on fame continues to come back and be a huge part of this.  It’s intense, gripping, and reminds us that Phil is one of Folk’s greatest gifts.  Then we have the title track, “Now Only”, which is the most stripped down and Folk oriented track yet.  And of course, this is easily the track sounding most like “A Crow Looked At Me”.  In a way, I feel like this is sort of a summary of a lot of the elements that made up that album.  However, this one does eventually pick up into a more upbeat Folk Rocker about death in way that only Phil could bring us.  It’s an intense track, but to be honest I feel like some of the other moments here that aren’t about Genevieve are even more powerful.  That whole story about him playing that festival in Phoenix is awesome, and even more impactful when he puts it so bluntly that they “flew him in to play songs about death”.  A lot of this album is just that though, blunt.  And “Now Only” as a track gets so blunt at times that it comes off almost tongue in cheek. I do have to point out, if “A Crow Looked At Me” was a little much for you, as it was for a lot of people, this album is a whole lot easier to swallow.

 

    “Earth” reminds us that Phil is really attempting to bring in as many more instrumentals as he can.  There are some actual electric guitars on this one, who would have thought.  But that, along with the downtrodden feel and heavy lyrical content make this just as intense.  Phil continues to have such a way with words.  Even when he’s stringing together his simpler moments, he really does have a way of keeping you interested.  But I honestly feel like of all the songs on this album and “A Crow Looked At Me”, this is easily the most grizzly.  Phil here is literally bringing up his wife remains ashes and bones, and what happened to them after she passed away.  It’s not a happy tune, but it’s intense and masterfully written.  “Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup” on the other hand, takes things back in a Folk direction.  But this one is just so dense and incredibly dark, as well as some elements seemingly of his classic track “Who?”.  For a folk tune, this one is really jittery, but it comes off calm and almost reassuring at times.  But “Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup” really packs a strong punch, bringing in some of the Experimental vibes of Mount Eerie’s past, but also having an almost Progressive feel.  This one is a little easier to swallow and not nearly as personal, but it’s actually refreshing.  And while it seems a little like Phil is just spitting out whatever’s on his mind, it gives this track almost a cluttered feeling that’s really cool.  This one also reminds us just how great Phil is as structuring tunes, as this one is all buildup for these very breezy choruses.  This album finishes up with “Crow Pt. 2”, and going into this album was easily one of the tracks I was most curious about, mostly since Pt. 1 was such a standout on “A Crow Looked At Me”.  I actually love immediately how introspective and self-aware this track is, as Phil’s directly referencing the dramatic and chilling finale of his masterpiece.  I have to say, Phil overall does sound more at peace, as hard to believe that is.  As hard as it is to picture that, you have to realize Phil doesn’t have nearly as many questions this time around and doesn’t sound so damn lost.  He sounds like he’s actually gotten some answers, whether he liked them or not. Not only that, but Phil just sounds like with “Crow Pt. 2” that he’s giving us an update on his life.  And while yes, he may seem a little lost still to an extent, as anyone would be, he’s “getting by” as he claims.  It’s a song about moving forward but always remembering the past, and respecting it.  Phil lost someone that was so close to him, but it’s just so much more than that.  And while yes, this is still a heart-wrenching experience of an album, it’s much easier to digest than the absolutely soul-crushing “A Crow Looked At Me”.  

Rating: 8.3/10

Give A Listen To: "Tintin In Tibet", "Distortion", "Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup", “Crow Pt. 2”

Genre: Indie Folk / Experimental Rock / Drone / Sadcore

Overall Thoughts: Phil Elverum returns shortly after his absolute masterpiece that is “A Crow Looked At Me” with what I consider, a pretty substantial sister-album.  And I can’t stress that enough, this album was meant to be played after listening to and dissecting his album from last year.  Now, first off, this album isn’t nearly as devastating and truly soul-crushing as “A Crow Looked At Me”, mostly because Phil for the most part seems like he’s in a better place (slightly) and he brings in some more instrumentals.  However, this is far from a joy ride or an easy listen.  Phil chats about a lot of the same topics, such as death as well as his late-wife Genevieve. But he also brings in a lot of themes that are really interesting like his thoughts on the afterlife as well as Fame and being a parent, all while bringing in some really interesting personal stories.  If you haven’t listened to “A Crow Looked At Me”, I would really urge you to listen to that first, and then come back and tackle this.  But at the end of the day, while it’s not nearly as devastating and absolutely crushing all around, this album reminds us that Phil Elverum is one of of Folk’s greatest storytellers.