Send "Mount Eerie " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Released in fall 2002, when Mount Eerie mastermind Phil Elverum was still calling himself the Microphones, the first Song Islands singles collection has proven a sort of signpost in Elverum's vast sonic journey. Breaking from the dense, craggy, world-beating noise-folk that marked his LPs-- particularly the towering The Glow Pt. 2-- Song Islands was an unusually naked affair that offered new insights into the makings of an Elverum production while, at its best, frequently pulling the focus squarely on the songs rather than their embellishments. The LPs that would follow Song Islands-- the impossibly huge Mount Eerie, the lopsided No Flashlight-- failed to reach the heights of Elverum's earlier work, and he seemed to retreat further into his art, issuing numerous singles and EPs, exploring genres, and releasing lavish coffee-table books with records that often felt secondary. The proliferation of individual pieces-- often with similar names, typically attached to curious-on-paper concepts-- has made it a near impossibility to keep up with Elverum, more creatively restless than ever. We needed an overview.Instead, we're presented with another volume of Song Islands: Thirty-some tracks, primarily unreleased, covering everything from raw alternate takes of recent works to wormy 1970s AM pop castoffs. It's a lot to take in, as a retrospective of such a monstrous catalog ought to be. But the territory Song Islands Vol. 2 attempts to chart is simply too vast-- nearly a decade's worth of diversions-- to cover in 80 minutes' time. The nature-kid proselytizing, the scabrous drums and stalactite guitars, the existential anguish-- it's all here. But Elverum's always at his best when the songs feel sewn into their surroundings; the songs from Song Islands 2 seem plucked piecemeal from the archives, divorced from the bursts of inspiration that birthed them. Elverum's refusal to sit still these past few years has resulted in some breathktaking music, no doubt, but laid out like this, it also makes for a scattershot listen We begin with "Where?", a scene-setting bit of folk that immediately lays out Elverum's post-Glow 2 identity crisis: "Mount Eerie is nowhere/ Mount Eerie is playing tonight." From there, Song Islands slips into the Carpenters homage of "Calf in Pasture" (less grim than it sounds), the percussive drone of "The Intimacy", then the more typical Elverum wayfarer "I Whale". Each has its charms, but due to their clipped construction-- most songs hover around the two-minute mark-- and the record's pacing-averse genre-hopping, Song Islands never establishes the internal rhythms and deliberate dynamic shifts that mark his best work. There's little apparent order to the tracklist; a chronological sequence might've explained the odd pacing and would've offered up a little more insight into Elverum's evolution over the last several years, but these tunes almost seem picked out of a hat. It's hardly a best-of; the tender, searching "Wooly Mammoth's Mighty Absence", certainly on anyone's shortlist for the single best Elverum song in a decade, is conspicuously AWOL, making room for directionless ambient interludes ("Heart Lake at Night"), sketchbook remnants ("Voices in Headphones [Singers]") and half-formed, heart-on-sleeve strums (take your pick). Roughhewn tone pieces sit next to barren folk laments, only occasionally meeting in the middle; his sonic palette, one of the richest in indie rock, often feels pared down to a few basic elements, and while Song Islands 2 covers a great deal of ground, rarely do these songs reach the hushed intimacy or thunderous calamity of Elverum's more elaborate productions....full text |
| Potholesinmyblog |
| Song Islands Vol. 2, released under the Mount Eerie moniker as opposed to Microphones like the original Song Islands compilation, is a sizable compendium of songs covering from the 2002 release of Song Islands to the present day. Coming in at a total of 31 tracks, Song Islands Vol. 2 continues Phil Elverum’s powerful and decidedly exploratory musical style. The compilation maintains an incredible sense of intimacy, even when the vocals get choral, which is on the precipice of being the rule as opposed to the exception. From the outset Song Islands Vol. 2 is simultaneously a mix of questions and nonchalant statements. Specifically, “Where?” asks questions about Mount Eerie itself with accompanying responses. The beautiful conversational quality is present throughout the album contributing to the overall intimacy mentioned previously. “Don’t Smoke” plays out as one side of a conversation where the unheard party is being chastised, obviously, for their smoking. The song is clearly reminiscent of Elverum’s earlier studies of mortality, a theme at least partially continued in Song Islands Vol. 2. Yet the album isn’t all so glum. “You Turn Me On” is predictably faster paced and dare I say passionate (in a filthy hipster kind of way). Song Islands Vol. 2 runs the gamut of topics, whether it be smoking, thanksgiving, cooking and even an admonition to “Get Off The Internet”. The last six minutes or so of the compilation are arguably the most interesting. “(wind lyrics)” is five minutes and fifteen seconds of a cacophonous clashing of the sounds of wind and musical instruments, resulting in a powerful and ground shaking medley more fitting for parting the Red Sea than helping to bring an album to it’s inevitable close. “Small House” returns to the awe-inspiring conversational lyrical style prevalent throughout the rest of the compilation, ending Song Islands Vol. 2 just as solemnly as it begun....full text |
| Roundletters |
| What’s there to know about Mount Eerie? Or, better question, what is there to search and find out about Mount Eerie? Here’s what I’ve learned: Mount Eerie is a project led by Phil Elverum, who used to do the band the Microphones. Volume 1 was released under the Microphones name. Elverum is based in Washington state. His latest, Song Islands Volume 2 was one of those albums sent to me by a publicist (a great one, Matt Charlton, I might add). I must honestly say I know nothing of Volume 1, the Microphones or what it says in the 30+-page booklet that comes with the physical vinyl albums, so this one kind of came out of nowhere for me. What I’ve heard is basically the entrance into a man’s imagination, into what he sees through music. That’s more or less what music is for everyone (that’s a case to be argued), but never have I felt so close to the texture of the process. Elverum put 31 short tracks of half experimental indie half somewhat shoegaze rock in. We sit, we listen and we learn. It’s an intimate experience. Charlton describes the songs as “scattered, isoloated non-album tracks,” and with the title of the album, that’s great. Song Islands. They can be islands because they’re short, scattered or isolated from conventional music. This album is clearly not one you can listen to at a party or in the car, it’s one you need to attempt with patience and headphones. Elverum uses a slew of noises and instruments, conjuring up all these details that are more deadpan than mysterious swirls. He could sound like a boy fiddling around in a shed; like he’s on the Indian train tracks in The Darjeeling Limited; like he’s between the pages of a picture book; or perhaps quietly swaying in a wheat field, on a small boat in a big body of water or just in his room. Alone or accompanied. The use of guitars and drums are the most noticeable, but it’s Elverum’s voice that is the biggest hit, the dream catcher....full text |
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