Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
The subject matter on this record is enough to crack even the toughest of skin and reduce anyone to tears. In 2015 Phil Elverum’s (Mount Eerie) wife was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer following the birth of the couple's first child and died later in July 2016. The record focuses on Elverum’s pain of losing his wife and the months following and the struggle to keep everything together for the sake of his 2 year old daughter.
Photo by Frédéric Minne | Source
The album treads along beautifully with haunting guitars and exhausted vocals. The production is a perfect companion to the subject at hand, with droning reverb and ambient chorus effects throughout. This creates the tension as we move from memories of his late wife to the acceptance of her death to the realisation of his responsibilities as a widowed father.
I can hardly finish this album without a lump in my throat. The imagery Elverum conjures up through the album is unpretentious and very relatable for anyone with a child or someone who has lost a loved one. He takes about the pain of taking out the garbage, the boredom of hospital waiting rooms and the attempts at keeping it all together for the sake of your children.
This album is perfect for winter nights and trying to fill the emptiness of losing someone. But be warned, you may need to keep a pack of tissues nearby.