Mount Eerie's 2019 collaboration with Julie Doiron, Lost Wisdom pt 2, finds songwriter Phil Elverum reflecting on his marriage to and divorce from actor Michelle Williams. Now, Elverum has reflected back on that album, admitting that he finds it "embarrassing" in hindsight.
"I made all these life changes. But then it didn't work, and I got dumped and had to move back home," he told The Guardian, saying that he wrote poetically rather than strictly autobiographically "because the person in these songs was still alive; I couldn't speak as freely about her, and felt more protective of her anonymity."
He said, "I can't listen to those songs now," noting that they were written during "a period of hopefulness" during the split, "when I thought maybe understanding could be reached. And now I know that it can't. It's still a little embarrassing in hindsight, just because of how painfully it ended, and how abruptly. The trauma from that lasted a weirdly long time. It seems like [the death of late wife Geneviève Castrée] should be a bigger trauma, but it didn't require as much therapy."
Despite Elverum's fraught feelings about the album, Exclaim! gave the album a 9/10 review upon its initial release. The song "Love Without Possession" is included in our recent list of Elverum's 20 best songs.