Mount Eerie Wind's Poem

After four years of limited EPs, LPs and collaborations, Phil Elverum has finally delivered Wind's Poem, his proper Mount Eerie follow-up to 2005's No Flashlight. And like most releases by the lo-fi indie popper turned folk eccentric, this one comes with a loose theme: in this case, "black metal." This newfound motif isn't a total surprise, after all, the nature-obsessed Elverum explored similarly dark territories with last year's Black Wooden Ceiling Opening, but it does mark some significant switch-ups. Most noticeably, Wind's Poem contains some of Mount Eerie's loudest distortion-loaded attacks, with roughly half the record tearing your speakers a new one. However, for the remaining songs, Elverum goes in the complete opposite direction to create some of his most desolate, otherworldly isolation sounds, coming across best when the Pacific North westerner and new playing partner Nicholas Krgovich (No Kids) sound lost in some Twin Peaks dream world. Wind's Poem may not be Elverum's most accessible or cohesive outing but it does find him pushing the creative boundaries of what Mount Eerie mean. (P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.)