Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
Death is real. It's something we all know rationally, but often not implicitly or emotionally. The feeling of that knowledge is often held at arm's length, or placated with pleasing fictions. Mount Eerie's new record will make you feel the truth of it. Written and recorded not long after the death of his wife, Phil Elverum made this album in the room in which she died, using mostly her instruments and equipment.
This isn't typically the type of music I put up here, I'm usually of the opinion that the lyrics are not the point of a song, and prefer releases where the music and melody is what's given the most attention. But there's no denying that the words are kind of the main attraction here - the songs are simple, and somewhat unstructured, sometimes feeling purposefully unfinished.
There is one wholly musical element to this release that I think more than makes up for the lack of others. The cultivation of mood on this record is truly masterful, and even more impressive because the normal human mind doesn't like to linger on the feeling of death. Not grief, not anxiety, not depression (although all three do make an appearance) but the feeling of death itself. I don't think I've ever heard a musician choose to focus his craft on that terrible thing with such clarity and contemplation.
Of course, no one can stay in that place forever, and this record eventually moves on to longing and to lingering love. That's what grieving is really, learning not to see the darkness, to look away.
Not for casual listening. Know what you're getting into. This music is painful, but ultimately worth anyone's time.
Stream in full below via YouTube.
Highlights: Real Death • Ravens • Soria Moria
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