Seven New Songs

Longtime critical darling Phil Elvrum’s last two official releases, 2003’s Mount Eerie and 2004’s Live From Japan, were greeted with mild reviews and low sales. Not only were those two albums considered to be flops, but, in general, fans of underground, indie, progressive, college (and so on) rock seemed to have washed their hands of Elvrum. No longer were people interested in his pocket production, intrinsic vocals or peculiar musical rendering of nature and art. Strangest of all was Elvrum’s reaction, or non-reaction, as it seems. Rather than releasing more accessible albums, or fighting to revive his career, Elvrum kept getting weirder. If that’s possible. 

Rumors came that, while touring Australia in late 2004, Elvrum was selling his first recordings under his new Mount Eerie moniker in the form of a tour-only EP titled Seven New Songs of Mount Eerie. Limited to 196 CD-R copies, Elvrum seemed surprised when his fans in the States were looking to purchase copies while attending his U.S. shows later that year. Surprised that 90-plus percent of his fanbase didn’t feel shafted when he told them that it was an Australia-only release? Ungrounded, even by Elvrum’s standards.

Recently, Elvrum finally made the recordings available to his fans via free download. Yes, free. Seven excellent recordings, some of the best of his career, some of the best to see release in 2004, which would easily sell 10,000 copies, now made available for free to anyone with the Internet. Clearly, money and sales are not an issue on Mount Eerie.

The content is still very obscure at times and probably somewhat unlistenable to those unfamiliar with Elvrum’s past work. To give you a taste, Seven New Songs contains no hooks or song structures, at least a dozen collaborators, often all singing at once, visually bloated lyrics and production aimed at detail-oriented listeners. The production, in fact, should have most listeners running for the hills; similar to Lee Perry’s early work, Elvrum has never mixed or recorded his albums according to convention. All said, Elvrum’s songs are always beautifully whimsical, leaving the right listeners feeling as light as air, ready to love any little thing that comes their way. Twenty-four free, beautifully peculiar minutes of moderately theatrical, always fascinating music from the mind of a genuine madman.

Despite what you may have read, Phil Elvrum is still one of the most decorative songwriter/producers working in music today. Simply put, nothing else, today, yesterday or tomorrow sounds anything like a Phil Elvrum album. He doesn’t release collections of songs or even cleverly themed records; he produces elaborate, sweeping projects made to challenge listeners’ reactions. While his recordings have never been stuff for the masses, the few he does manage to infect typically become diehard believers in his unique approach to his art. To hear one of my very favorite artists, head over to www.pwelverumandsun.com and download Seven New Songs of Mount Eerie for free. Welcome to the weird world of Phil “don’t call me Elverum” Elvrum. Be ready for anything. That’s the only way it’ll work.     9/10

Written by G. William Locke