[35] One reviewer said that "tragedy hasn't stopped [Elverum] from noticing the world; if anything, it seems to have pried his eyes open for good". [3] He took further inspiration from the works of Canadian singer-songwriter Julie Doiron, American poet Joanne Kyger, American rock band Sun Kil Moon, and Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgård. "The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s | 65. [46] Britt described the song and its use of natural imagery as "one of the most vivid illustrations of Walter Benjamin's concept of 'aura'". It has been compared to music from his 2009 album Wind's Poem. [45] "Ravens", which is accompanied by multi-tracked guitar, piano chords and percussion,[55] describes Castrée's last living days and the moments after. [17] The album's thematic throughlines are concluded in the closing lyrics: "And there she was". and get to be post-human Music critic Eric Grandy described the performance as "heavy and awkward and weird" yet "supportive and cathartic and necessary", taking into account the crowd's emotional reaction to the material. [43] The Guardian's Brigid Delaney wrote that the album is more comparable to "a traditional lament" than popular pieces of music about death such as Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree. [140] Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast chose it as one of the five albums that changed her life and said that it helped her cope with the death of her mother. Label: 7 e.p. [73] The performance was noticeably sparse; Elverum did not use amplification, and played only his acoustic guitar. Eleven stark songs about basic deep grief, loss, real death, love, significance and non-significance, reality. ", "11 Pitchfork Staffers on Their Favorite Live Shows of 2017", "Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum on His New Record, the Futility of Facebook, and Being a Single Dad", "10 Historic Albums About the Loss of a Loved One". [13] He had originally planned a small-scale release on his website but wanted to reach a wider audience as the album took shape. that's your life Having been an admirer of all of Phil Elverum's work with/as The Microphones and Mount Eerie, I purchased "A Crow Looked at Me" in advance of its release, not knowing any of the details surrounding its creation. A Crow Looked at Me, an Album by Mount Eerie. [7], Elverum wrote and recorded the album between August 31 and December 6, 2016, at his house in Anacortes, Washington,[8][9] in the room Castrée had died, and for which he credits the album's "immediacy" and "bluntness". “Crow,” the last song off Mount Eerie’s A Crow Looked at Me, details a specific scene, where Phil and his daughter are hiking through the woods on … As Mount Eerie and with the Microphones, he's written enough about death in the abstract to make the difference on A Crow Looked at Me palpable. Her husband writes an album. [71] He played the album in its entirety during the concert's 45 minutes. in a past that keeps happening [75][76] He spoke to numerous press outlets while promoting the album but said these experiences were more akin to talk therapy than to a typical public relations campaign. [114] In readers' polls conducted by Pitchfork and Stereogum, the album placed at number seven and number four, respectively. Mount Eerie, "Mount Eerie at St John on Bethnal Green: A truly remarkable and honest portrayal of tragedy", "Mount Eerie Announces New Album, Shares New Song 'Real Death, "Le Guess Who? [141] Gilles Demolder of the black metal band Oathbreaker has expressed admiration for the album, looking to it for inspiration and crediting it with helping him see that "acoustic guitar and words can be so much heavier than anything I've heard before". Available with an Apple Music subscription. [118], The album has been described as "historic" by Paste's Adam Nizum, and Thomas Britt of PopMatters called it "one of the most remarkable folk albums ever produced". [106], All tracks are written and produced by Phil Elverum. [69] On January 6, 2017, he announced that he would tour and release the new album. [45] Breihan thought that the album rejected conventional standards of music, a theme commonly found through other reviews. A new Mount Eerie album unlike anything else in the Mount Eerie or Microphones back catalog. His sparse lyrics and minimalistic musical accompaniment were influenced by the poet Gary Snyder and the songwriter Julie Doiron, amongst others. Where Mount Eerie's previous album, Sauna, was fittingly foggy and contemplative, A Crow Looked at Me is grounded in reality. [68], Elverum considered not releasing the album at all. [19] It is the only song on the album to have anything resembling a traditional refrain. A Crow Looked at Me is Elverum's best selling record to date and is considered among his most important works. In the middle of Nov [2], Inspired by Gary Snyder's poem "Go Now", Elverum realized that he did not have to take meaning in Castrée's death, and could write frank songs that bluntly describe his experience of her illness. [106] Andy O'Connor of Spin noted that the album was widely praised and "identified with" because of the perceived ubiquity of grief in the late 2010s. [56] He has expressed regret over repeatedly describing and singing about her final days. Elverum & Sun. [17] He said that most of his initial songwriting notes took the form of a "formless, no-rhythm, no-meter, no-melody blob of words". [32] Paste's Matt Fink suggested that although Elverum's repertoire of songs about mortality is perhaps second only to those about nature, A Crow Looked at Me "marks the first time he has written about death". He remains active as Mount Eerie, and is one of the most prolific lo-fi musicians today. He admitted that he would probably approach a similar performance by another artist in terms of being "hard to look away from a car accident". [45] During the same track, Elverum uses a drum kit to simulate the sound of a closing door to recall a moment when he took out Castrée's trash. Mount Eerie, previously known as The Microphones, is the recording project of Washington state based musician Phil Elvrum. [78] He played a number of then-unreleased songs, including the title track from his following album, Now Only. EMR 69 P. Elverum´s recent learning-process about dealing with the death of a beloved-one is at full exposure on his new LP as Mount Eerie, A Crow Looked at Me (an incredibly suitable title at that). [48] They include unresolved notes and chords; the ending of "Seaweed", for example, hangs on a half-step descent. A Crow Looked at Me, Elverum’s ninth album as Mount Eerie—and 13th overall, counting his earlier music as the Microphones —mentions Geneviève … [18] This process was a result of habit, "just doing what I usually do", which was "to distill all the mass of words in my head into something a little more poetic and musical". The first track showcases the sparse instrumentation featured throughout the album, as well as introducing the theme that "Death is Real", which Elverum once said could be the name of the album. Product details. Mount Eerie's 2017 album, A Crow Looked at Me seemed to be the culmination of Phil Elverum's longtime preoccupations with shapes and void, … ELV040: A Crow Looked At Me by Mount Eerie. Genres: Singer/Songwriter, Indie Folk, Contemporary Folk. The three albums form a trilogy that centers on the birth of Elverum's daughter and the death of Castrée. [136] According to Max Savage Levenson of Bandcamp Daily, by the end of 2017, the album had been recognized as a "milestone" in Elverum's career; Tiny Mix Tapes writer, Leah B. Levinson echoed a similar sentiment. The new record follows a tough year for Elverum. [80] The tour was extended to include Europe in November 2017. [The songs] suggest what it might be like to look at a person but, instead of seeing their clothes and skin, gazing directly upon their strained muscles, their nerves firing sparks, their blood frantically coursing through their arteries, and understand just how fragile the whole damn thing is. on January 20, 2017. Another comforting reappearance on Now Only is the analog sprawl of earlier Mount Eerie records. [59] The fire represents a sort of "cleansing", but it is unclear what is being made pure. [63], "Soria Moria" references the eponymous painting by Theodor Kittelsen, and incorporates elements of black metal. [18] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork explained the contrast to Elverum's earlier work as similar to "the difference between charting a voyage around the earth and undertaking it". [11] He used a single microphone, an acoustic guitar, and some of Castrée's instruments. [13] The album was recorded onto a laptop computer, making A Crow Looked at Me his first album to be produced entirely in this way—he had before mostly used analog recording. [58] Elverum mentions his daily duties, as well as the nearby refineries that were a common motif in Castrée's art. Elverum has said that although the album is art, the line is about "the difference between the idea of a thing and the actual lived experience of it", and that this line is an example of him "joking around". [91] He felt that the intimate and personal nature of the songs made performance difficult, particularly when in front of people who knew Castrée. Mount Eerie A Crow Looked at Me. 11 Songs. A Crow Looked at Me is out March 24 on Elverum's own label, P.W. But it feels made for a very specific time and place, and the subject matter is tough to stomach and tougher to shake. [138] Both The Guardian's John Robinson and Craig Jenkins of Vulture highlighted it as an example of a new personal style of songwriting. [104] Tiny Mix Tapes' writer Jessie Rovinelli said that the album "recommitted me to the world as it is, reminded me of the danger of grand statements and the sad comfort in uncertainty". [71], "Crow", the first track to be released, appeared on the charity album Is There Another Language? [143] Commenting on A Crow Looked at Me and its "raw moments" nearly a year later, Elverum stated that he could no longer relate to the emotions and grief he expressed on the album. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2017 Vinyl release of "A Crow Looked At Me" on Discogs. One of the most common sentiments in the weeks leading up to A Crow Looked At Me’s release is one of apprehension; fans of Mount Eerie don’t seem to want to hear Phil Elverum’s newest effort, at least not in a conventionally excited way. 2 (2019) (after) is a live album by Mount Eerie, released in 2018.The album captures a live performance of songs from A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only recorded at the 2017 Le Guess Who? you wake up from the dream Toothbrush/Trash 10. “Real Death", a single from A Crow Looked at Me, is no ordinary Mount Eerie song. "[63] During the same track, Elverum sings "Your absence is a scream saying nothing", with the word "scream" drawn out, a raw moment that Greene compared to self-harm. Ravens 4. [9] Britt wrote that the song's introspection makes previous dark, brooding moods in Elverum's work seem enjoyable by comparison. [17] "Swims" details his experience of grief counseling and the sudden death of his counselor;[46] his vocals are accompanied by a minimal guitar line and simple piano chords. [39] The lyrics frequently use pronouns such as "our" when referring to Castrée. [115] It was featured on several lists of the best albums of the 2010s decade,[116] including a top-20 placement by Noisey. festival in the Netherlands. [21] Even while writing the album, he remained unsure whether anyone except himself would ever hear it, and he had no goal in mind. [33] Marvin Lin of Tiny Mix Tapes and The Guardian's Michael Hann gave ambivalent opinions; Hann said the style was "functional" and "sufficiently mannered that it's not really a question of whether it's good or not". [1] Distraught after her death, Elverum considered retiring from music to become a full-time father, but a visit to the Canadian island Haida Gwaii inspired him to write notes that, along with those he had written during her illness, became the lyrical basis for A Crow Looked at Me. When acclaimed French-Canadian cartoonist Geneviève Castrée … 2017–2020: A Crow Looked at Me, Now Only and Lost Wisdom Pt. Elverum liked the recording so much that he released it in 2018 as the live album (after). [33], The work's exploration of death has been compared to the Antlers' Hospice (2008), David Bowie's Blackstar (2016) and Sufjan Stevens's Carrie & Lowell (2015), although, as highlighted by writer Isabel Zacharias, A Crow Looked at Me focuses more on the grieving process and its mundane aspects than these albums do. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, "Mount Eerie is not just poking at sadness", "New Sentences: From 'Forest Fire,' by Mount Eerie", "Mount Eerie / Nicholas Krgovich – Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver BC, August 18", "Thoughts on Listening and the Music of 2017", "In a Room Listening to Phil Elverum Sing About His Wife's Death", "Mount Eerie addresses his wife's death on new album, "Mount Eerie: Phil Elverum Is Analog In A Digital World", "Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum on music and grief", "The Sound of Sadness Overwhelms and Inspires Mount Eerie", "Album Review: Mount Eerie with Julie Doiron –, "10 Things You Should Do This Labor Day Weekend (and Beyond)", "Robert Christgau on Mount Eerie's 'A Crow Looked at Me,' a Brutal Listen", "Mount Eerie sings about death without the euphemisms", "The 50 Best Albums of 2017 | 10: Mount Eerie –, "The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s | 35: Mount Eerie –, "Craig Finn, Mount Eerie, Pallbearer, and more in this week's music reviews", "How Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum Faced Grief on His Devastating New Album", "Review: Mount Eerie's Heartrending Now Only Is a Beautiful Reflection on Grief", "An artist's lament exposed me to the rare power of real grief | Brigid Delaney's diary", "The Gummy Awards: Your Top 10 Albums and Songs of 2017", "Best of 2017: Music Critic Top Ten Lists", "Throwaway Style: Mount Eerie and the Enduring Pain of Grief", "Japanese Breakfast: 5 Albums That Changed My Life", "P. W. Elverum & Sun Store – Mount Eerie", "Mount Eerie, St John on Bethnal Green, gig review: Beautiful art inspired by tragedy". Mount Eerie's A Crow Looked At Me is named Best New Music Phil Elverum lost his wife—an artist and the mother of his child—to cancer. He believes that a tribute would be ineffective at capturing who Castrée was. He changed his name from The Microphones to Mount Eerie in 2003. [5], The album's working title was Death is Real, but Elverum ultimately decided against it as a title because he felt it failed to capture "the subtle love and the mystical aspects" of his connection to Castrée. [42] According to The New Yorker's Peter Baker, the album's lyrics combine "emotional intimacy and tonal frankness to a degree rarely heard in contemporary music". [19] Elverum intended the songs to have a "hyper-intimate" and unrestrained quality, and to be philosophical but devoid of metaphor, which he felt would be "cowardly and pointless". [25] Nonetheless, in an interview a year after the album's creation, he expressed disbelief that he had been able to make an album under the circumstances. [103], Many reviewers were impressed by the album's direct sentiment and emotional lyrics. His offhanded mentions of anguish ("the room I still don't go into at night") cut much deeper than a showier display of feeling, while his descriptions of his lingering loss ("what was you now borne across waves, evaporating") frequently manage to be harrowing and beautiful at the same time. Elverum chose to use it because he felt it encapsulated the album's themes and his own grieving process. "The 50 Best Albums of 2017 | 9: Mount Eerie: "Music Heals: Phil Elverum on Expressing Grief Through Music and Remembering His Late Wife Geneviève Castrée", "Indie hero Phil Elverum shows us his ravaged heart on Mount Eerie's, "Mount Eerie Shares Song from New Album: 'Real Death, "Phil Elverum on Life, Death and Meaninglessness", "Mount Eerie announces North American tour dates", "Microphones, Mount Eerie and Melancholy: The Career of Phil Elverum", "Review: Mount Eerie, 'A Crow Looked at Me, "Phil Elverum Returns to a Refuge as the Microphones", "Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum Devastates with His First Show in Two Years", "Death Is Real: Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum Copes with Unspeakable Tragedy", "Mount Eerie's Great Hall concert was painfully intimate", "Mount Eerie review – truth defeats beauty on stark songs of death", "Happy Listening: The 6 best new releases of the week", "Danny Brown and Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum Had a Really Nice Twitter Moment Together", "Mount Eerie's Phil Elverum Shares a Tiny Room with Death", "Father John Misty, Dirty Projectors, Mount Eerie, and Sun Kil Moon Find New Ways to Write About Pain", "Beyond Grief: How Mount Eerie Made an Album About His Wife's Death", "There's No Music Like the Unspeakable Grief of Mount Eerie's 'Now Only, "Mount Eerie shares video for heartbreaking new song "Ravens" – watch", "Mount Eerie: Songs of Pain and Devotion", "The Pointlessness and Promise of Art After Death", "The Best Albums of 2017: #40 – #21 | 34. [27] The photograph shows Elverum's hand holding a piece of paper with the poem "Night Palace" by Castrée's close friend Joanne Kyger. Elverum wrote and recorded the songs over a six-week period in the room where she died, mostly using instruments she left behind. [79] That September, Elverum performed "Ravens", "When I Take Out The Garbage At Night" and "Soria Moria" in the New York office of Stereogum. [57], "Forest Fire" explores themes of death, decay, and the seeming absurdity of life. [70] The next day, he played his first concert since September 2014, at the Business, a record store in Anacortes, Washington. [45], The music is reminiscent of his 2008 albums Dawn and Lost Wisdom;[46] its songs avoid standard musical structures and have sparse instrumentation—individual instruments enter and leave at unpredictable times—a drum machine producing a hiss-like sound, acoustic guitar, chord changes, an absence of choruses, unorthodox verse structure, and very few melodies.

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