SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MOUNT EERIE – NIGHT PALACE

MOUNT EERIE
NIGHT PALACE
P.W. ELVERUM & SUN

Night Palace is the first Mount Eerie album since their 2019’s Lost Wisdom Pt. 2. During that five-year gap, vocalist and songwriter Phil Elverum kept busy touring, and releasing music with his other group, The Microphones. Whichever band he is focusing on, Elverum does not make light music for easy listening. Night Palace is a work of art and captivates the listener from beginning to end.

There is a lot going on in this deceivingly sparse album. Elverum layers sounds and instruments, piecing everything together like an abstract jigsaw puzzle, and lets the music do a lot of his speaking. His daughter, Agathe Elverum, makes an appearance during the song “Swallowed Alive”, for which she wrote the lyrics. And Geneviève Castrée, Elverum’s first wife, is present with an archival recording from 2006 with the song “Blurred World”. It fits the album beautifully.

Elverum uses noise effectively throughout the album, such as the remarkably beautiful “I Heard Whales (I Think)”, which has a beautiful melody then goes into some serious sounds before resolving itself. This brings the listener to one of the most accessible songs on the album, “I Saw Another Bird”. It is achingly sad and really centres the album, lyrically and musically. “I Spoke With A Fish” continues this, but has the interesting line, “Recorded music is a statue of a waterfall”. It is a powerful statement.

Night Palace may just be Elverum’s best album to date. Many will disagree and have their own particular favourite albums, but Night Palace holds together and has a lot going on in the grooves. There is so much more than what meets the ear, from the noisy songs (such as the well-orchestrated “Breaths” to the almost painful closing “I Need New Eyes”). Elverum took his time with this album. Night Palace is startling, brave, and utterly brilliant.

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