Mount Eerie, and the meaning of Larger Than Life.

I've always a hard time dealing with how people use the expression "larger than life". The first time I heard it was in a discussion about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, which many people consider to be the greatest album of all time. Me, though? I can't see it. The whole thing sounds like any other pop rap album, the production is very simple, although admitedly sharp and fresh. But it doesn't sound grandiose, and that's what I think this expression should be used for.

Mount Eerie is the only album I feel comfortable enough with calling it larger than life, and even, the best album ever made.

Firstly, I'd like to stablish that what I think is artistic value is not the same as my own subjective taste. I believe those are completely separate things, and when something manages to be artistically great, it is larger than me, the artist or the world at large (i.e. death of the artist, but with us, the audience, included on it). But sometimes, certain pieces of art manage to capture something greater than anything that has come before, in one way or another, usually because of its pure technical quality alongside a big and compelling emotional core. And this is where I think Mount Eerie stands in, because it's larger and more grandiose than any other album I've ever heard, thus, it is larger than life.

Now, let's talk about the album. This is what I like to call a "show-off album", which is a record wherein an artist shows off some technical ability, be it virtuosity in an instrument, or intricate songwriting, usually sounding devoid of emotion in exchange for showcasing these abilities (which is basically any Jacob Collier record), but in this case, Phil Elverum showcases his ability to create some of the most out there and astonishingly emotional music ever made. Some people might say his masterpiece is The Glow, pt. 2, but even though it is indeed a very emotionally compelling piece of music, Mount Eerie clearly exceeds anything he did on there. 

The concept of the album is where Phil first starts shifting his artistic intentions, being an epic about the author walking through a metaphorical post-mortem, coming to terms with the torturous cycle he finds himself in. It is basically the musical equivalent of Dante's Divine Comedy, not just in story but also the sheer scale and surrealism of how said story is presented. While Dante uses poetry and metaphores to create this sense of "something we cannot comprehend", Phil uses sounds, and very experimental (and beautiful) sounds at that. There are a lot of choires, strings, tribal sounds, cult-like singing and digital effects, creating something that sounds unbelievably whimsical.

I should also mention the production, which is absolutely the best I've ever heard. I'm a producer myself so this is one of the things I usually care about when listening to music, and let me tell you, this is some of the best sounds you'll ever hear in an audio file. One example is the dark voice in "III. Universe", which sounds like something recorded in the 2010's because of how crisp and clear it is (by the way, that line is one of my favorite moments out of any song ever). Phil creates miniature worlds, highways and vast deserts using each track/channel in a way I've never seen done before. It's as if he is making a movie in audio form, with each set piece, each light, each camera being turned into its own sound in the mix. The amount of detail present here is absurd.

The lyricism is also something to point out, but in my opinion is nothing too different in a structural level from what seen in his previous works (which were already perfect to begin with), the biggest difference is the over-arching narrative of the album, which is a metaphor for the pure struggle of living by depicting an endless cycle post-mortem in which Phil has to climb the titular Mount Eerie for an eternity, over and over and over. He shows that by switching through perspectives, sometimes narrated by an embodiment of the sun (voiced by Phil), and making callbacks to older songs and themes from his discography.

Let me remind you that this album was so good that Phil decided this was the last thing he'd make in the Microphones project, and would change to the name Mount Eerie right after it. He would go on to make less maximalist but equally compelling music, such as A Crow Looked At Me (which I could also make an essay on but I think it's too personal and deep to do so).

So, to put it bluntly, Mount Eerie makes any other album ever made being considered as "the best" to be a stupid claim in my book. I can't remember anything that sounds more complex and compelling than this, it easily tops my other contenders for best album ever (Wish You Were Here, Pet Sounds, Just Got Back From Discomfort etc.) and it manages to blend experimentality with accessibility in a masterfully genius way.

Favourite tracks: II. Solar Power and III. The Universe

(11/10)