I second this. This is exactly the kind of music writing I love and that there should be more of on Substack. I want personal experiences and recommendations and proper critiques, not just top 10s
So glad you wrote this David as it provided the opportunity to give this album another listen. It didn’t grab me on first listen as I just wasn’t in the right headspace.
The additional context you provided on the grief at the heart of the album definitely piqued my curiosity and prompted a reevaluation. Knowing the challenges I faced with grief after my mother’s passing in 2018 I’m interested in hearing, particularly through music and poetry, how people struggle to cope with their own grief.
Not sure whether you’ve ever listened to Mount Eerie’s “A Crow Looked At Me” but when I think of grief it’s the first album that comes to mind. It’s beautiful but devastating and makes for a difficult listen.
Thanks for your comment, Mark. I'm glad it prompted you to re-evaluate the record - I'm surprised at how little coverage it has received, so I was very keen to get the word out. "A Crow Looked At Me" was also in my mind when writing this. It's a very raw, difficult listen, one that I admired a lot but haven't felt an urge to revisit.
One of the reasons “A Crow Looked At Me” was so far down my AOTY list that year (#41) was for that very reason. It’s just not an album I’m going to listen to very often. Normally that fact would preclude an album making my AOTY list but in this case, I felt like it was so powerful that it deserved inclusion (albeit on a list that very few people see but me lol)
I just had a look back and it seems I wrote about A Crow Looked At Me in No Ripcord's Best Albums of 2017 feature. It placed 11th on our list. Funnily enough, I made quite a few of the same observations I returned to in the Ben Kweller piece:
"How does one even begin to critique an album as devastatingly personal as A Crow Looked At Me? Is it appropriate to question a choice of lyric, the record’s production values, or its sparse instrumentation? At times I found myself wondering if I should even be listening at all. Two landmark albums of recent years, Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie and Lowell and Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree, were both challenging listens, heavily influenced by personal grief; A Crow Looked At Me is different. It is simply the sound of unfiltered, raw grief. Elverum’s stream of consciousness lyrics lay his devastation bare for all to see; there is no attempt at universality here, so as a listener it is easy to feel uncomfortable, a weirdly detached voyeur, unable to offer Elverum anything in return for his innermost thoughts. Overcome the discomfort, the gross imbalance between artist and listener, and an enormously powerful record awaits, one which simultaneously belongs with the year’s best and in an entirely different category."
i hate that your posts are getting lost because this was really lovely.
Thanks Gabbie. I just hope the people who do read this check out Ben’s record. It hasn’t had nearly enough coverage. Only two reviews on AOTY!
wow, seriously?! that's insane
I second this. This is exactly the kind of music writing I love and that there should be more of on Substack. I want personal experiences and recommendations and proper critiques, not just top 10s
Thanks Joe, that’s very kind. Top tens are easier and quicker to write, that’s for sure!
So glad you wrote this David as it provided the opportunity to give this album another listen. It didn’t grab me on first listen as I just wasn’t in the right headspace.
The additional context you provided on the grief at the heart of the album definitely piqued my curiosity and prompted a reevaluation. Knowing the challenges I faced with grief after my mother’s passing in 2018 I’m interested in hearing, particularly through music and poetry, how people struggle to cope with their own grief.
Not sure whether you’ve ever listened to Mount Eerie’s “A Crow Looked At Me” but when I think of grief it’s the first album that comes to mind. It’s beautiful but devastating and makes for a difficult listen.
Thanks for your comment, Mark. I'm glad it prompted you to re-evaluate the record - I'm surprised at how little coverage it has received, so I was very keen to get the word out. "A Crow Looked At Me" was also in my mind when writing this. It's a very raw, difficult listen, one that I admired a lot but haven't felt an urge to revisit.
One of the reasons “A Crow Looked At Me” was so far down my AOTY list that year (#41) was for that very reason. It’s just not an album I’m going to listen to very often. Normally that fact would preclude an album making my AOTY list but in this case, I felt like it was so powerful that it deserved inclusion (albeit on a list that very few people see but me lol)
I just had a look back and it seems I wrote about A Crow Looked At Me in No Ripcord's Best Albums of 2017 feature. It placed 11th on our list. Funnily enough, I made quite a few of the same observations I returned to in the Ben Kweller piece:
"How does one even begin to critique an album as devastatingly personal as A Crow Looked At Me? Is it appropriate to question a choice of lyric, the record’s production values, or its sparse instrumentation? At times I found myself wondering if I should even be listening at all. Two landmark albums of recent years, Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie and Lowell and Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree, were both challenging listens, heavily influenced by personal grief; A Crow Looked At Me is different. It is simply the sound of unfiltered, raw grief. Elverum’s stream of consciousness lyrics lay his devastation bare for all to see; there is no attempt at universality here, so as a listener it is easy to feel uncomfortable, a weirdly detached voyeur, unable to offer Elverum anything in return for his innermost thoughts. Overcome the discomfort, the gross imbalance between artist and listener, and an enormously powerful record awaits, one which simultaneously belongs with the year’s best and in an entirely different category."
I think the last there chimes with your point.