Newspaper Review

Ryan Massengill, The Prowler
Carolina Forest HS (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)

“Album ‘Glows’ with insight, skill”

There’s a distinct feeling one gets while admiring something of natural beauty: a calm ocean, a fog-shrouded mountain range or even the night sky.

It is, as any famed transcendentalist poet or writer would attest to, more of an experience than a simple feeling – it’s an overwhelming sense of veneration and awe. Although I am fairly certain The Microphones’ 2001 album The Glow Pt. 2 was conceived within the man-made confines of a recording studio, it is the only piece of music I have experienced to date that is organic enough to provide me with that same sense of awe.

Lo-fi virtuoso Phil Elvrum (currently of Mount Eerie) concocted the lush swells of sound that make up the 20 tracks on the album. In fact, it almost seems unfitting to refer to them as “tracks,” as each piece drifts gracefully into another, calmly washing over the almost constant backdrop of electronic rumbling and tape hiss. The album flows in such a way that it could easily be labeled as one breathtaking symphony rather than a mere collection of songs.

One is ushered into the listening experience by the lolling acoustic guitars of “I Want Wind to Blow,” a placid piece in which Elvrum’s paper-thin voice floats with hesitation over the instruments. The song’ aura of serenity is unexpectedly shattered by the title track’s barrage of crashing cymbals splattered Pollock-style over a canvas of growling guitar fuzz. Within this piece are more enigmatic yet beautiful lyrics accompanied by a thunderous piano and, eventually, a drone of organ noise and an instrumental conclusion of bouncing, dreamlike electric guitars.

After this is “The Moon,” which starts off with more warm acoustics and eventually launches into a blast of rapidly-recited lyrics over a whooshing zephyr of background noise. The fourth piece on the album, “Headless Horseman,” features only Elvrum’s frail vocals baring his soul with more trademark cerebral lyrcs ad a unassuming acoustic guitar. He softly bemoans a loss of some sort – perhaps a relationship – as he sings: “I miss my closet friend/Now I cling to rocks and wind/It’s a precious thing we lost.”

The 13th track, “You’ll Be In The Air” slowly builds up from tinkling guitars to a booming musical panorama complete with a healthy dose of anguished wailing from Mr. Elvrum. The relatively upbeat “I Felt Your Shape” is the 18th track, with a playful guitar bouncing off of Elvrum’s soft yet emotive voice.

The Glow PT. 2 simply would not be the vast expanse of musical scenery that it is without the peppering of instrumental pieces on the album. Some wildly blare and howl like two-minute parades and some are barely audible rivulets of sustained buzzing and rhythmic, droning hums. All, however, were molded from the same proverbial clay – and never was there a defter artisan than Phil Elvrum.

Could this be Elvrum’s masterpiece? It wouldn’t be irrational to think so. This album conjures pristine, sprawling images of nature – to me, it seems almost unbelievable that it is a work borne of human hands.

Phil Elvrum’s position as a sonic and lyrical genius was secured with the composition and release of this album. Listen to the ethereal gem The Glow Pt. 2 and you’ll become more in tune with the natural sights, sounds and colors around you.

And perhaps that’s just the reaction that Mr. Elvrum was shooting for.