The Microphones, The Glow, Pt. 2 (K) 9+
Olympia Washington's K Records, known for celebrating twee sounds and musical incompetence, has surprisingly come out with their first lo-fi headphone classic with The Microphones' The Glow, Pt. 2. The album is not without precedent. Uber-indie artists like Smog, Flying Saucer Attack and Neutral Milk Hotel have created wondrous sounds with limited resources. But none match the expansiveness of The Glow's sonic beauty. Over 22 songs and 66 minutes, Anacortes, WA-based Phil Elvrum covers vast territories, from subdued acoustic ballads, chamber pop, noisy sound experiments, to mind-blowing psychedelia. Elvrum communicates deeply emotional sentiments with sublime subtlety, employing elliptical, stream-of-consciousness lyrics Bill Callahan (Smog) and Jeff Magnum (Neutral Milk Hotel) would be proud of. The music is cinematic in that the dreamlike sounds don't describe feelings, they make you feel it. In songs like "I Want To Be Cold," you feel the chills up your spine; "I Felt Your Shape" brings up memories of desperate neediness we've all felt at some point for someone; "The Moon" takes you there. There is still plenty of ambiguity, which makes repeated listening so rewarding, like all enigmatic classics. It's difficult to discern what "The Glow Pt. 2" is about exactly, but it evokes a dizzying sense of hugeness that is breathtaking, like swooping down from Elvrum's Washington mountains towards the ocean. He's faced death, but feels more alive than ever -- "My chest still draws breath/I hold it/I'm bouyant/There's no end." Indeed, it need not end if you revisit The Microphone's 2000 release, It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water for its 11-minute-long "The Glow." And there is certainly no end in sight to Phil Elvrum's talent.
