Mount Eerie (album)

Mount Eerie is the fourth studio album by American indie rock band The Microphones. Frontman Phil Elvrum began work on the album after a long tour of Europe and North America. Released by K Records in 2003, the album is named after the mountain on Fidalgo Island, where Elvrum spent much of his childhood. Elvrum later used the same name for his next musical project, and released a follow-up EP to the original album in 2007.

Mount Eerie
Studio album by
The Microphones
ReleasedJanuary 21, 2003
RecordedNovember 21, 2001 – June 10, 2002
Studio
Genre
Length40:51
LabelK
ProducerPhil Elvrum
The Microphones chronology
The Glow Pt. 2
(2001)		 Mount Eerie
(2003)		 Microphones in 2020
(2020)
Alternative cover
CD cover
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic76/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Alternative Press5/5[3]
Pitchfork8.9/10[4]
Stylus MagazineB[5]
Tiny Mix Tapes5/5[6]

Fans, critics, and Elvrum himself often consider the album to be one of his most ambitious releases both musically and conceptually. The music and lyrics found on the album are heavily referential to books, poems, and other songs by popular artists and Elvrum's friends' music alike. A booklet entitled Headwaters was released some time after the album's first pressing that went into exhaustive detail describing almost every single lyric's meaning and origin. Headwaters' publishing was limited to one run due to its inclusion of a MiniDisc containing every song that Elvrum had been influenced by or referenced on the album, running afoul of music copyright law. The disc included songs by Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., Julie Doiron, and Little Wings, among others. Despite the album's referential nature, the end product is still widely seen as an imaginative and exploratory work that pushed many boundaries regarding what was normal for indie rock at the time.

Lyrically the album delves into a fantasy-laden story that tells of Elvrum wandering through a dangerous landscape, being killed by an evil spirit known as "The Big Black Death" (played by Kyle Field of Little Wings), being eaten by a group of vultures (played by Karl Blau), and ascending into the cosmos after death. To fit the massive lyrical story the music ranges from jittering experimental rock to subtle layered folk music to huge natural reverb-laden chorus sections set to slow drum rhythms. Though the album is compositionally reminiscent of previous Microphones records, Mount Eerie stands out amongst them as being the most conceptually driven and unrelentingly dark.

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."I. The Sun"17:11
2."II. Solar System"3:38
3."III. Universe"6:41
4."IV. Mt. Eerie"8:58
5."V. Universe"4:23
Total length:40:51

Personnel
  • Phil Elvrum – vocals, guitars, bass, organ, piano, Swiss alpenhorn, drums, additional percussion
  • Adam Forkner – cowbell and trumpet on "The Sun"
  • Anna Oxygen – additional vocals on "The Sun" and "Mt. Eerie"
  • Mirah – additional vocals on "Solar System"
  • Khaela Maricich – additional vocals on "Universe" (part 1) and "Mt. Eerie"
  • Calvin Johnson – additional vocals on "Universe" (part 1)
  • Jenn Kliese – additional vocals on "Universe" (part 1), "Mt. Eerie", and "Universe" (part 2)
  • Kyle Field – additional vocals and instruments on "Mt. Eerie"
  • Karl Blau – additional vocals and instruments on "Mt. Eerie"

"Precipice Carolers"

These singers form the chorus of the title track.

  • Kyle Field (of Little Wings)
  • Phil Elvrum
  • Khaela Maricich (of The Blow)
  • Phan Nguyen
  • Amber Bell
  • Bethany Hays Parke
  • Shawn Parke
  • Hollis Parke
  • Dennis Driscoll
  • Zach Alarcon
  • Adam Forkner

References
  1. "Reviews for Mount Eerie by The Microphones". Metacritic. Retrieved December 18, 2016.
  2. Phares, Heather. "Mount Eerie – The Microphones". AllMusic. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  3. "The Microphones: Mount Eerie". Alternative Press (175): 70. February 2003.
  4. Carr, Eric (January 20, 2003). "The Microphones: Mount Eerie". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 26, 2015.
  5. Howard, Ed (September 1, 2003). "The Microphones – Mount Eerie/The Singing From Mt. Eerie/The Drums From Mt. Eerie – Review". Stylus Magazine. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014. Retrieved May 4, 2019.
  6. "The Microphones – Mount Eerie". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
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