Mount Eerie (album)

2003 folk album by the Microphones

Mount Eerie is the fourth studio album by American indie folk and indie rock band the Microphones, released by K Records on January 21, 2003. The album is named after the mountain Mount Erie near Anacortes, Washington, which is the hometown of Phil Elverum, the band's frontman. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, including accolades such as Pitchfork "Best New Music" title and inclusion on Treblezine list of "essential" psychedelic folk albums. Mount Eerie has been described by Elverum as being about mountains, earth and space. The album is a concept album, consisting of a linear narrative spanning its five songs. Elverum establishes a metaphor for life in which he depicts the womb, birth, and through to death, in the second last track. His lyrics depict a cast of characters, while the music includes cinematic drums, choirs and drones. Sonically, the album is a continuation of The Glow Pt. 2 (2001), the previous studio album by the Microphones. After the release of Mount Eerie, Elverum adopted the Mount Eerie moniker, as the themes of his music had changed. The album was released alongside 2 EPs, The Singing from Mount Eerie and The Drums from Mount Eerie, featuring isolated tracks from the album. After its release, Elverum felt that the ending of Mount Eerie narrative was inconclusive, leading him to release the sequel Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7 in 2007.

Mount Eerie was named after the mountain Mount Erie near Anacortes, Washington. Elverum explained: "from where I grew up, the south side, [the mountain] has a pretty dramatic rock face, and so it was always looming there, especially from where I caught the school bus". Mount Eerie was recorded between November 21, 2001, and June 10, 2002, at Dub Narcotic Studios in Olympia, Washington. 2 sections of the album, labelled "Big Black Death" and "Wind / Vultures" are solely attributed to Kyle Field and Karl Blau respectively. "Wind / Vultures" was recorded at Quatro Syncho in Trafton Lake, Washington. Elverum describes Mount Eerie as "a continuation of the sound that concludes The Glow Pt. 2", the Microphones' previous studio album. "I. The Sun" was sonically tied to the closer of The Glow Pt. 2, "My Warm Blood", using the foghorn tape sound that concludes "My Warm Blood". Elverum used different vocalists to represent different characters because he wanted the album to be more ambiguous and theatrical. In the album, Elverum tells of a fictitious climb up Mount Erie, Washington (stylized as Mount Eerie in the album), passing by obstacles along the way. Adam Dlugacz of PopMatters interpreted that Elverum uses the climb of Mount Eerie as metaphor for life after continuously seeing the mountain while growing up in Anacortes, Washington. The album begins with "I. The Sun", a 17 minute long track. Eric Carr of Pitchfork described the drums as a "heart like pulse"; they gradually build up and become more complex. Far into the song, vocals enter, sounding desolate and vulnerable. Once vocals enter and Phil is born, he is forcibly chased up the mountain, by a personification of Death riding on a black ship. As the song finishes, it is consumed by a wall of distortion, which Carr describes as "a deafening drone and crash of cymbals". In "II. Solar System", Phil continues his climb. The wall of noise from the previous track is cut back into an acoustic strum, described by Carr as "delicate". The lyrics have been interpreted as a self reflection in nature, or as isolation and worry. Mount Eerie received generally positive reviews from critics, receiving a 76/100 on review aggregate Metacritic. On its release, Eric Carr of Pitchfork gave the album the publication's "Best New Music" title, and scored it an 8.9/10. Lavina Lee of Flak Magazine called the album "a complete tragedy. Or a comedy." and criticized it for being overambitious, having "croaking" singing, and a presumptuous release. Heather Phares of Allmusic described Mount Eerie as "deeply beautiful and unnerving, as well as deeply thoughtful". In a review for PopMatters, Adam Dlugacz gave the album a positive review, especially noting that "it is in the details that Phil Elvrum's latest opus unfolds". Stylus Magazines Ed Howard wrote that Mount Eerie makes listeners "get to travel with him [Elverum] into the uncharted next ocean of Microphones territory." In 2020, Bandcamp Daily called the album "Elverum's most elemental but complex album" and highlighted the album's seamless transitions between genres.

Adopted from liner notes.

+Release dates and formats for ''Mount Eerie Region Date Format Label Catalog num. (Catalog number) Japan December 12, 2002 CD 7. e. p. EPCD007 United States January 21, 2003 LP, CD K Records KLP140 United States August 20, 2013 LP, Digital download P. W. Elverum & Sun ELV032