Music That Matters: The Glow Pt. 2

Antonio Topete

“Music That Matters” is a series of posts highlighting music with special significance in my life, that has stuck with me, and that has become a foundation for my appreciation of music as a whole. For my first entry, in honor of its 20^th anniversary, I will be discussing the 2001 lo-fi indie rock masterpiece, The Glow Pt. 2 by The Microphones.

There is a quality of music that is so important, yet so difficult to describe or explain when you see it, and that is sincerity. When you hear the emotional swelling of instrumentation, or impassioned lyrics sung softly and loudly, how do you decide how genuine an artist is? In many ways, it feels as though it isn’t possible to determine from the outside whether an artist is genuine or not, but it is an undeniable feeling when listening to music. There are moments, or songs, or albums, where you can feel the artist’s passion, where you can almost see the wonder in their eyes as you hear their instruments and voice. And importantly, there is no real objective way to defend this feeling; there is no metric you can use to prove this music comes from a sincere place. But to create such a feeling in listeners is deeply significant, and when it comes to the question of sincerity, perhaps existing only as a feeling, instead of something tangible, is fitting. I can think of few albums that embody that feeling as completely as The Glow Pt. 2.

The Microphones, contrary to what you might think, is not a band, but a solo project by singer-songwriter Phil Elverum. In interviews, Phil has recalled frequent and sporadic trips to a recording studio he had access to at the time, spent writing and recording. Specifically, he has spoken of meticulous adjustments to his recording setup, the placement of microphones around the room, and the search for an organic sound. Using lo-fi (or low fidelity) techniques, The Glow Pt. 2 achieves a sound that feels warm and personal, sounding as though the studio was Phil’s own home. If you listen closely, you can even hear him walking around the studio from one instrument to the next. The performances on this album are imperfect; acoustic guitar strings can be heard buzzing on frets, some strumming will slightly fall out of tempo, and recordings will crackle with static. But these imperfections embellish the album with genuine character, and with the sense that they are born of an immense drive for self-expression, and the need for creation. Like the impulse to pull out pen and paper to scribble thoughts in the spur of the moment, the songs on this album feel like creativity boiling over the edge of a pot, needing to be recorded then and there. The flaws of The Glow Pt. 2 are one of its greatest strengths, and give the album, and every instrument and voice in it, life.

Although quiet intimacy lies at the center of this album, what in my opinion elevates it as a unique and essential listening experience is the delicate and perfectly navigated balance between the soft and gentle, and the bristling explosiveness of noise. Contrasts in energy and noise are scattered throughout the album, sometimes moving from beautiful acoustic guitar, to overblown distortion, to droning ambience. These shifts are executed to perfection, where even abrupt changes sound like deliberate statements of emotional outpouring. One of the best examples of this comes at the very beginning of the album, with my favorite one-two punch of any record opener. “I Want Wind To Blow” begins with a seemingly simple yet hypnotic acoustic riff with layered guitars and vocals, eventually transitioning into a catchy second guitar riff. This section builds into a climax, where some silence fills the air, until the crushing sound of clipping (think blown out speakers) percussion drives the riff to its fading conclusion. In my opinion, this track alone is enough to stand out as an incredible piece of songwriting and unique sound design. However, as the song seems to fade away, the title track, “The Glow Pt. 2” explodes into existence, with roughed edges and deep, powerful tones. But again, as quickly as you get comfortable with the rocky energy of the track, it shifts back into a sweet acoustic melody. But this time, the song builds with swirling synthesizers and powerful vocals. There is no idling on this album, and the first two tracks prove this point immediately. This isn’t to say that The Glow Pt. 2 is hoping to disorient you, but rather that it wants to take you on a journey full of ups and downs, drawing from sadness, anger, and euphoria, and expressing these emotions through not just lyrics and melodies, but the quality of the sounds themselves.

This isn’t to say the lyrics and melodies of this album are subpar, in fact these elements are also key in the greater experience of the record. Not only does Phil manage to create memorable and catchy riffs and melodies with his instruments and voice, but they are backed by verses full of vulnerable and poignant lyrics. The Glow Pt. 2 is, in essence, a breakup album, and in a sense, the highly dedicated and meticulous work of Phil on the album is a way of dealing with his complex emotions of the time. In the aforementioned “I Want Wind To Blow”, the album begins with the line “The thunderclouds broke up, and the rain dried up, the lightning let up, the clacking shutters just shut up.” His ex-partner was also his bandmate in an act called The Thunderclouds. And in this beautiful double meaning, Phil illustrates how the breakup has affected his life, drying up the rain, stopping the lightning and the noise, simultaneously making way for a moment of quiet meditation, but also removing essential energy from the world around him. Rich lyrics like this are present throughout the album, as he speaks of feeling like a headless horseman after his “trip to hell”, or feeling like a planet orbiting the sun in a moment of elation before remembering that we are all just small. One of my favorite lyrical moments comes on the song “I Felt Your Shape”, where Phil discusses his failed perception of his ex-partner, remembering the way he could feel all of their different elements: ” your winter snows, your gusty blow, your starry night.” Despite reminiscing on how he felt so in tune with his partner, he recognizes how he misread the relationship stating “I thought I felt your shape but I was wrong, really all I felt was falsely strong.” This line has always stuck with me. The feeling of being overly confident until being obviously wrong is widely relatable, but it is stated here in language that I find so poetic. I would say The Glow Pt. 2 is full of poetry.

From the instrumentation, to the playing style, to the lyrics, The Glow Pt. 2 is alive. I cannot stress this point enough. No other album has felt as much a living, breathing thing as this one. Whenever I sit down with this album, I hear Phil in his heartbroken world, and I hear the interweaving ideas across the record building together into something mythical, always with something new to offer me. Throughout the album, there is an ambient motif, a deep bass note that floats in the air between tracks, almost like deep breaths before transitioning from one idea to the next. On the final track “My Warm Blood”, we are sent off with a long iteration of this motif. Between the breaths of bass, snippets of other tracks on the album can be heard in the distance, like memories. A heartbeat steadily pulses in the outro, and more than ever the album feels like a person to listen to, and possibly even to try to console. And it is here I realize it’s because the album is actually a person, and his name is Phil Elverum.