Mount Eerie - Small HousePhil Elverum is good with domestic scenes. There have been a few songs along the way that have referenced things happening in yards (The Glow pt. 2), in kitchens (I Felt Your Shape), and on doorways & porches (Lanterns), but Small House is probably the first time he's directly addressed full-on domesticity. He talks about how his involvement with the interior life of his home has made him forget what's going on outside (this, again, is another instance of the contra mundum dynamic that comes with high intimacy--in this case it's between Phil and his house (or between Phil and his wife, more likely)). The songs ends with this perfect little scene that Elverum sings about in a tone that's hard to decipher (happy? elegiac? proud? resigned? matter-of-fact?), "A car playing music drives by the window while I'm washing dishes in the vast night." Like with a lot of Mount Eerie/Microphones songs (with the exception of Headless Horseman), the conjunction of lyrics and music here make me want to see/hear/experience what Elverum's talking about, and I'm tempted to run out to the bank post-haste and demand a mortgage.
[BUY Song Islands, Vol. 2]