Takes by the Ocean: We Still Don't Trust Emo-Rap

But emo-prog and emo-EDM on the other hand

Nerd is the word: Origami Angel (Photo by Kay Dargs)

YES

Mount Eerie, Night Palace

Waiting for a Phil Elverum album where the music’s finally subsumed the words seemed as foolhardy as waiting for a Mountain Goats one. But the pull of the grinding Stereolab concoctions here especially seemed like cause to extract the meanings from their environments. He records the wind, the rain, his daughter playing the Eric Gaffney on “Swallowed Alive” to his Lou Barlow, his garage bangings, his diary, distortions that sound not just homemade but like amplifications of the home itself. He encounters birds he doesn’t speak to and a fish he does, possibly to warn it about the birds. Not much of a singer because he can’t fathom an atom of artifice, he can stop you sideways with an “I love you.” He also quotes The Big Lebowski and I Think You Should Leave and tucks in Easter eggs from his own discography, even his own imprint on “& Sun” like he’s Patrick Stickles or something. What’s more surprising, that Phil actually rocks out on “Writing Poems” or that his “November Rain” is catchier than Axl’s? And because you asked, my favorite musical component here is the Another Green World-esque lead guitar on the Another Green World-esque title “Blurred World.” For a striking lyricist to achieve so much parity with his aural gestalt is to conquer a long-held gap.