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While having a discussion about some of the insensitive spins on this album's material in a music server, such as a nightcore remix of "Real Death" and a few awful reviews, the topic of Me&Me's parody of the album (Named Playdough Cooked in Tea) came up pretty quickly. Surprisingly, someone came to the defense of it. Not to defend the album itself and to claim that it's actually funny and not in poor taste, because that is indefensible, but instead to present an interpretation of it that suggested that it wasn't mocking Phil and Genevieve at all. Instead, the album was parodying the discourse that surrounds "A Crow Looked at Me" and how limiting it is. To them, what Me&Me's album was doing was mocking the cynical, shallow, and insensitive ways people discussed the album.
What was being parodied was the hyperbole behind statements like "should we be listening to this" or "how do I rate this" or at the worst of it "did Phil exploit his wife?" none of which offer any actual reflection on the conversation of the record. It's one dimensional and reeks of perverted ego and not much more. Essentially, according to them, what Me&Me did was create a parody that presents the album in the way that it is treated by those who call it a great record. It is treated by these sorts as a taboo, an album to avoid or to at best only listen to once and then never again. That sort of subtle disgust being directed at the album makes it nothing more than an album about a dude's dead wife. And it's pretty depressing that someone would see it that way at all.
A Crow Looked at Me is a beautiful album. For as daunting and sad as it may be, and for as much as I may have cried to it on a first and follow-up listen, it isn't just an album about death. Without having to parse for deeper meaning, it's a life affirming and romantic album. Phil loved Genevieve. You can feel it in every uncomfortable line about how existence in her absence is just... too much. This album doesn't need to be drenched in poetics for us to understand just how much of an impact this event has in Phil's life, and how much it impacts us as readers being granted permission to see pieces of it. That to me is beautiful. I can understand how people listen to this album and get a bit uncomfortable with how naked it is about the things it talks about, but I could never understand how the conclusion you'd draw when facing that is "this is exploitative" or "should I be listening to this?". After all, this album wouldn't exist if it wasn't meant for others to experience.
That reading about Me&Me is definitely smarter than the musician doing the parody but it did start a very interesting conversation among those of us present. This conversation also made me think a lot about how I engage with this record. I listen to albums for their conversation. And the dialogue of this album is certainly different for Phil and unique for most musicians. And I think back to the disagreements I've had with people about the album in regards to its' lyric sheet and how it is presented so plainly, directly, and with sparse instrumental backing. Is this an album where the sort of presentation we often require other folk or singer/songwriter albums to have matter? I've seen the argument that "without context, this is just a tepid folk album" passed around every now and then and treated with a level of legitimacy that I find a bit gross. Without context, this album doesn't exist. Get with the program or don't bother.
Maybe our attitude about music needs to change a bit. Like a record is more than just its sounds. There is dialogue there, a conversation to be had. Meaning, themes, and a conversation that aren't explicitly coded within the composition yet vastly impact the record. And maybe we shouldn't expect every album to have these super deep or super clever lyrics in the superficial sense where varied vocabulary is present. The way it is presented is intentional, clearly, and it has deep impact. I don't think this is an album that you should even try to extrapolate deeper meaning from. Which I feel is a very controversial statement. Phil definitely didn't intend for deeper meaning to exist when he was writing it. In his view, that sort of abstract thinking is meaningless. What is present in this record is all that it means and is. And it seems like violating the terms he sets in the opening track to turn this very confessional piece into any other album is sort of... selfish. Like, you're no longer the observer to this moment in Phil's life. You made it about you, and I don't like that.
It makes me sort of infatuated with this idea of an art piece that is literally impenetrable to alternative readings or interpretations. Not in that sort of close minded way where people deny those elements even exist, but this idea that the piece and what it means for the artist is literally all we have to work with and to respond to. We are forced to be confrontational with what the artist intended only and nothing more. No bending it through a lens and no room for compromise. That is literally impossible, mind you, but a part of me feels like this album may have been the closest to that ever happening. Like, the obnoxious "should we be listening to this" comments aside I don't think I have ever seen an album where virtually every response to the record is one of the same. How everyone didn't do anything else but just absorb the raw, emotional vulnerability being laid out. No one needed to think about this album on a deeper level. They didn't need to subject it to "the discourse" and exhaust and argue about the way it was composed to justify acclaim. They didn't have to do anything. They just had to listen and empathize and have an intense reaction to it. And honestly, I think that's beautiful. That this piece that invited listeners to reject poetics and abstract thought and see it solely from a single, intended perspective was achieved by the sheer power of existing in all its plainness alone. I just don't know if any other album will ever have an effect like that again.
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Album Rating: 5.0
The album: http://pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com/album/a-crow-looked-at-me
The me&me album referenced: http://memen.bandcamp.com/album/playdough-cooked-in-tea
Musings about a favorite album, how I feel about the fact I like it, and the way it functions outside of the music itself. Figured it would be more fun than to exhaust adjectives about how sad a guitar sounds, or whatever. Will write more of these elsewhere, will share here if anyone is interested.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
Lovely lovely stuff, firm pos and looking forward to any further, uh, musings you publish!
"I don't think this is an album that you should even try to extrapolate deeper meaning from [...] Phil definitely didn't intend for deeper meaning to exist when he was writing it [...] What is present in this record is all that it means and is. And it seems like violating the terms he sets in the opening track to turn this very confessional piece into any other album is sort of... selfish. Like, you're no longer the observer to this moment in Phil's life. You made it about you, and I don't like that."
This cuts to the heart of the issue I have with this album. Confessional pieces themselves are always selfish to some level, and I think this one is particularly so. I feel like a lot is being, let's say, transmitted, here but I get zero sense of wanting to communicate with the listener in terms of acknowledging or validating any reactions they might have. You say the album "invited listeners to reject poetics and abstract thought", which is a fair point but imo it would be more accurate to say that it didn't invite the listeners to do anything at all; it's so absorbed in its authorship and context that there isn't really a clear avenue to approach it, hence your face-value attitude. I feel there's an issue of why share it at all that hovers in the background, which I still haven't been able to answer (although ofc respect Phil's decision to release it as such and the experiences many people have had with it since). Its resistance to easy access almost makes it an interesting statement about the absurdity of death, except, as you say, its total basis in its own context kinda cancels out those kind of readings. Your view on the simplicity of its scope and perspective is on point, but that could just as easily be rearranged to hold this as a lowest common denominator work of expression with its value 90% at the mercy of listener empathy and 10% down to respect for going there in the first place. I guess this leaves me actively cold-hearted, but the only thing that raises this from being a supreme work of solipsism is a one-way channel of consumption that made listeners, perhaps mistakenly but no less powerfully, feel involved in the context
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
not trying to undermine your take, which I think is a solid framing, but would be interested in any further discussion you have to share ;]
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lol imagine making your first review and post about something you love and the first reply you get is a contrib with a 1.5 hahahaha
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
It really just comes down to personal perception, I guess.
I am very loose when it comes to engaging with albums. I tend to take them on their own terms instead of expecting them to bend to my personal expectations for an album. To use this album as an example like I did in the write up, I find it unfair to dismiss this album for being "tepid and boring without the context" because like it or not accepting that the context has heavy weight in the conversation with this album is a term you need to accept. Otherwise I don't see the point in even bothering with this album except for some personal desire to give it a low score and to plant yourself in otherwise positive spaces.
And I think we are making the same point, Johnny, but are reaching different conclusions. To me, the way this album chooses to exist without care for how the average listener usually engages with an album is interesting. You're put into a compromising position. Either you take it on precisely the way its presented, in this case with you being invited to witness aspects of Phil's life during this period of time. Or you can reject that, try to extrapolate more (which you could, mind you) and become frustrated that you can't find validation for your personal reading of the album. It is a unique position for an album to take, and not one that is seen very often if at all.
Though the reality of it all, and I kept this out of the write up intentionally, is that it actually doesn't matter that we choose to read this album plainly and matter-of-factly to ignore abstraction or to treat it as though it exists in some sort of bubble removed from the thing we can an "album". The way I am reading this album ultimately means i am making a conscious choice to literally just ignore the fact that there is obviously deeper stuff to extract from this album. And to ignore it means to acknowledge it and to avoid it means I am just playing into it in a round about way. You can't escape from artsy fartsy bullshit.
I think the reaction to this album across the internet speaks for itself, though. For a brief period of time, the only thing that mattered was everyone just feeling it. Feeling the despair over death the the love for a passed one. Nothing else mattered, and that is really cool.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
Shrewd stuff, and mostly agreed.
"It is a unique position for an album to take, and not one that is seen very often if at all."
...especially on this, definitely on board with the value here...
"Otherwise I don't see the point in even bothering with this album except for some personal desire to give it a low score and to plant yourself in otherwise positive spaces"
...to which end, I think this album leads to enough interesting/worthwhile discussion to be worth bothering with regardless ;]
"I tend to take them on their own terms instead of expecting them to bend to my personal expectations for an album."
This is a tough one, as I find that the more you hear and the more opinions you establish, the harder it becomes to avoid joining the dots between different parts of your experience in advance of hearing anything new, depending on what scene it falls into etc - but that doesn't apply so much here and is probs a discussion for another day...
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
i can hear what you're laying down johnny this didn't effect me at all. however, i love Clear Moon. that is one of his best.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Controversy! My favourite. Love the review, keep'em coming. Pos
Also love this from you, major truth vibes.
"I think the reaction to this album across the internet speaks for itself, though. For a brief period of time, the only thing that mattered was everyone just feeling it. Feeling the despair over death the the love for a passed one. Nothing else mattered, and that is really cool."
All this being said, how do you feel about the fact that this album seemed to almost triple Phil's fame, if not just the media coverage surrounding him? That must've been very confusing for him considering the breadth of his career beforehand
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
When I take out the garbage at night. I'm not with you then exactly.
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
"All this being said, how do you feel about the fact that this album seemed to almost triple Phil's fame, if not just the media coverage surrounding him? That must've been very confusing for him considering the breadth of his career beforehand."
It speaks to the power of how receptive people are to complex feelings being presented as purely and simply as they are here. As for Phil, I'm sure he would have some reservations about becoming recognized in a more mainstream setting for this album specifically, for how personal it is. You'd have to ask him, though. I can only guess.
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i have a tough time listening to this, although it is brilliant
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Have to respect the well of inspiration this comes from, and the candidness of the lyrics, but the songwriting is still dreadfully boring for his standards. It's hard to admit with the lump in your throat that the story of this gives you but I've been dishonest to pretend that, circumstance withstanding, this isn't one of his worst albums.
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Yeah I really get nothing out of listening to this despite it being sad as hell
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
I think this would be a really great regular listen if not for the lyrics. The only downside I have with the album is just simply that it's not the type of album I can put on just to enjoy. It's beyond just regular sad folk music. And that kinda sucks for me because so many tracks here are maybe my favourites of his ever. So because of that I haven't really listened since it was released. It's occupies a very weird nebulous space of music that I've never expetiencesld before.
5/5 musically, 5/5 lyrically, 0/5 replayability
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
"I think this would be a really great regular listen if not for the lyrics."
lol.
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
I feel like I detail my feelings better in the review I wrote when it was released, my cOnTrOvErSiAl 0.5/5 review, but I keep forgetting I had all my reviews deleted. Maybe I'll reupload my two Mount Eerie reviews.
| | | Album Rating: 1.5
Oh yeah I remember that being referenced at the top of the thread for the current featured review; would be intrigued to read
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
"I think this would be a really great regular listen if not for the lyrics."
what the actual fuck
this is probably his weakest album sonically
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
"0/5 replayability" I can agree with this at least
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
"what the actual fuck
this is probably his weakest album sonically"
I don't really think so. I'm one of those people who loves his plain acoustic guitar stuff. My favourite Mount Eerie album is Live In Copenhagen, followed by Dawn, which are both just him playing barebones acoustic tracks like this. And I love that. I love super stripped down janky folk bullshit.
But the lyrics here are so personal and confessional and eye opening and almost perverted to listen in on, and that really ruins the desire to listen back to it. This isn't for me. This is a weird form of therapeutic catharsis that Phil made available and we've all just indulged in it and a lot of that relationship between musician and fan in this case feels just plain wrong. Almost exploitative, for many disparate reasons.
Phil tweeted last week "One of these days, eventually, people will stop saying how extremely they cry when I’m doing my stuff."
And that tweet kinda just takes you back a bit. Like yea. Hey phil, your wife died, this is how emotional it made me, a stranger. Boy let me tell ya bout it.
It's weird. And i don't really like it.
So yeah. Lyrically i think this album is unlistenable these days. I don't want to listen to that again.
But musically I love it.
It's very conflicting.
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