Album Review: Mount Eerie - Ocean Roar

Mount Eerie
Ocean Roar
Rating: Grrrr

Only 4 months ago Phil Elverum released the haunting and stark collection of tracks Clear Moon while promising a companion piece to follow. That collection, Ocean Roar, is now upon us and is definitely the yang to Clear Moon's yin. While sonically it is cast from a similar mold, the presentation is far louder, distorted, aggressive, and sloppier, exchanging the internal contemplation for external strum and drang. The press release describes Ocean Roar as “the audio equivalent of the blanket of thick dark water vapor that covers the Pacific Northwest for most of the year, revealing only brief glimpses of illumination..." insisting that these are not songs per se but “studies in sound, attempts to alter the way the brain experiences its surroundings after being subjected to endless chords, repeating note flurries, stretched drones. It’s 'psychedelic' in same way as seasickness or vertigo. Warmth and distortion, burning driftwood, 9 months of rain.” While it is a rather obtuse description of the album, after listening to it, it begins to make sense. Most of the tracks are well north of 5 minutes long, taking the time to explore repetition, drone, and the ugly with the beautiful. Ocean Roar feels like Elverum needed to open the door to the church he records in and get outside his head for awhile and breathe the fresh air and explore the environs of the Pacific Northwest.

Epic first single and first track "Pale Lights" sets the mood perfectly, rising from a mist of droning organs and scraping guitar chords as a furiously echoing beat takes the track forward. Elverum drops everything into the background bringing his fragile voice front and center singing "Pale lights from other islands/slow flashing through blue dusk/across the water seeing island shapes/ who is there?/echo/a small yelp on the wind and then more roaring." The music returns after this musing even more cacophonous, bringing in elements of ambient black metal that Elverum has a fondness for.



The initial flurry of dense sounds makes way to the relatively meditative title track, Elverum's voice paired with a chorus of lovely female vocals that echo and coo around his measured delivery. There are definite comparisons here with Talk Talk's later, more freely composed works



These contemplative moments come rarely on this record. Even where it seems a track is going to be more quiet, there is a sense of unease and foreboding lurking underneath. First "Instrumental" track's wailing woodwinds, funeral pianos, and ominous guitars plod along before dissolving into a haze of noise.



The rushing guitars and drums of "Waves" perfectly evokes standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the crashing tide and feeling overwhelmed by the world.



The black metal influence roars out of the gates on "Engel De Luft (Popol Vuh)" its repetitiously grinding guitars overtaking your senses in a bludgeoning rush.



A brief respite emerges in the melancholy ballad "I Walked Home Beholding" which could have easily fit in the more serene confines of Clear Moon. Rolls of reverbed guitar punctuate a buzzy analog atmosphere of organs and keyboards and an airy percussive bed.



But things finish with the dark, neo-psychedelic grooves of the second "Instrumental" track, the waves of guitars crashing into and upon one another for 7 minutes of bliss.



Compared to Clear Moon, Ocean Roar is not as cohesive thematically and sonically, feeling a bit more loose and free-flowing. As such, for me, it is not equals with that brilliant record, but only slightly. The emphasis here is more on blunt sound than internal musings, and has its own, different charms. Playing the two records back to back creates a completely different experience; both records' strengths more apparent, finishing off a story that is beautifully rendered. Ocean Roar caps off a brilliant year for Elverum's Mount Eerie project, with now two albums that will definitely be in the running for my top albums of the year.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.