Mount Eerie
Now Only
[P.W. Elverum & Sun]
Phil Elverum’s 2017 album, A Crow Looked At Me, approached grief from an impossibly close distance.
It was the art of a man so near to bombsite that it defied commentary, and to some, including this reviewer, it usually defied listening to it.
On Now Only, that distance is marginally greater, and while the pain and sadness remain pungent, they are less overwhelming.
The throbbing staccatos under the descriptions of the titular ‘Two Paintings By Nikolai Astrup’ even offer the momentary relief of art and the external world.
Brutal but brilliant.
Words – Ian Lamont
