Night Palace
by Mount Eerie

Night Palace has been celebrated online as the Mount Eerie album that sounds the most like Phil Elverum's work in the Microphones. It's interesting that this would happen when the solo project has covered so much ground that builds on different aspects of the Microphones sound, whether that's the quiet and intimate songwriting (Dawn, No Flashlight), the fuzzy loudness (Wind's Poem, Ocean Roar) and intensely personal lyrics (A Crow Looked At Me, Lost Wisdom), so why does Night Palace evoke these elements more? I think the key property of the record is its willingness to mix loud and quiet and to build on particular ideas. The first point in particular helps create that epic scope associated with Phil's 2000s era work, a completely loud album doesn't necessarily have this effect because there isn't a point of reference, whereas songs that include both create small and massive objects, with the former often swallowing up the latter. Think of the transition from the closing chords of I Felt Your Shape into the opening of Samurai Sword, that track would always sound noisy but after something so gentle it's like the loudest sound you've ever heard. The album Mount Eerie pushed this further, with fragile sounding vocals and acoustic guitars crashing up against thunderous drums, piercing electric guitars and walls of noise. It happens again here, the slow opening of Breaths is expanded by distorted drums and guitars, this is then ripped apart by Swallowed Alive (I'm still not 100% sure what we're even hearing on this track). I Need New Eyes is built around Phil's ever gentle vocals, but even the backing vocals are bolstered by an electric fuzz, making it all feel enclosed in something massive.

Night Palace isn't just great because it recalls some great records from 20-25 years ago though. Many tracks have a cleaner sound and more straightforward progression, both of which work brilliantly as they never totally dominate the tracklist. The guitar work in Huge Fire is stunning, there's a beauty in the soft smoothness of I Walk and the quiet interplay between the piano and backing vocals at the start of I Heard Whales provides a strong counterpoint to the build up of noise. Like a number of Phil's recent records this one looks to and draws from the past without just emulating it, instead these ideas are reapplied to the less harsh and experimental music that he makes now.

Maybe the biggest departure from previous work is the introduction of a political viewpoint regarding the land and nature that's always played a huge role in Phil's music. The land of the Pacific North West has often had this almost scared feel in the past, an unchanging landscape that creates a humility in how small it makes one feel. Night Palace deals with much tougher questions of how this land came to be what it is, observations like "only ten thousand years ago there were meadows here" and talk of mountains running like a stream that we are too short lived to see flow view this are as changing like everything else. It makes it as susceptible as anywhere or anyone else to the forces of greed (November Rain, Co Owner of Trees) and imperialism (Non Metaphorical Decolonisation and the mention of fighter jets on Demolition). Its a radical step into new territory for a project that's focused on the self and on the universe, without considering much of what's in between.

From ForegroundNoise 12/30/2024 17:32 | #306716 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

It's funny – when Night Palace first came out, the album felt like a bit of a disappointment to me. Its lengthy tracklist split across 81 minutes of sketches, ideas, and samples were – I thought – too directionless to really resonate with me. Phil Elverum is one of my favourite ever musicians, but my initial impression was this seemed a little on the nose for him: a recording of the sea, poems about the Pacific Northwest, ruminations on what it means to be a songwriter.

Two listens later and I completely turn around on it, it's little idiosyncrasies and imperfections instead becoming details to adore and pour over. Phil has managed to create a diary in song form, with all the wisdom and limitations that come with a single person's perspective. A real treasure of an album that I think I love even more in time.

From my Top 20 Albums of 2024: https://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?c=79692

Phil's still got it !! ;)

From slatsheit 11/16/2024 03:47 | #306078 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Its best moments are wonderfully engaging indie rock, but unfortunately that's less than a fifth of this turgidly overlong mess.