Mount Eerie - Night Palace

Not many artists get away with a 26 song album clocking in at 80 minutes. Fewer still make that record a contender for album of the year. Phil Elverum has never done anything obvious. He ended the Microphones at their peak rebranding under Mount Eerie (a Microphones song name). He then consistently pushed the boundaries of experimental pop music with albums such as Winds Poem, Clear Moon and Sauna. Following the death of his wife Geneviève Castrée he produced two raw and stunning records ‘A Crow Looked At Me’ and ‘Now Only’. These meditations on her memory and what it means to live on after such loss were startling and devastating. He then followed this with another curve ball, a 40 odd minute single track under his Microphones guise.

Elverum’s songs all feel like monologues of thought. As if the words just happened as a stream of consciousness. Of course, that’s ridiculous but the delivery of the vocal is far from standard. He is singing but he’s also speaking. It’s what makes his work so compelling and enriching.

Night Palace is another triumph. Another switch, like early Microphones but under his alter ego. Blurring the lines and making it clear that it’s Phil Elverum that we should take note of. Regardless the project.