album overview: the glow, pt 2 by the microphones

CONTENT WARNING: HINTED SUICIDE, DEATH

heres a link to one of my favorite songs! maybe you can listen a little while youre reading..

the glow, pt 2.... such an enormous album for me.. when i was really struggling, i listened to this every day on the bus to school... if not at home later on.. this album represents so much for me

really, this album documents a part of the artists (phil elverum's) life. to me, it sounds directly like the aftermath of a breakup, and getting back on his feet after it.. a really really harsh breakup. but it echoes so much more about his psyche. its so beautifully poetic, and delves into, almost, the peaks of his life and worst moments. that is so beautiful. but, i relate on so many more levels. it depicts what its like to Survive.. to live past your worst moments and to process them. to sulk in every emotion possible after them. it has so many allegories and motifs... that i really dont feel like naming!!

all the interpretations of this song are heavily swayed by my life instead of phil's narrative... so please take everything with a LARGE grain of salt. this is how i view it. plus im too lazy to do a giant analysis on every single theme and every single song.. so youll just get the ones i find interesting!

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1. I WANT WIND TO BLOW

an amazing but lightly optimistic opening song... to me, this represents missing when things were lighthearted.. or maybe, any feeling at all. here, phil describes the end of a situation, a "storm". both before and after! though, he misses the beginning. he misses the wind of the storm. its boring, lonely, and uneventful past it. he misses the wind and, i guess in a way, all that came with it.

 > this is amazing to me because i purposefully put myself in bad situations, or storms, out of boredom. ill become so apathetic i need to feel anything. im often missing it all; im also missing the almost calmness of what came before it. its a neverending fight of wanting more and wanting nothing.

2. THE GLOW, PT 2

holy shit this song is amazing... it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.. its so RAW... its a horribly beautiful depiction of what its like to, again, Survive.. its like processing in live time what you went through and how you Survived.. its this chilling feeling of knowing how good things once were, and then realizing how horrible things became. and knowing youre still ALIVE. you made it through.. what the hell!! youre ALIVE!!! not only that, but its effects last on you... what a crazy feeling man..

> this song resonates with me so much because ive faced death multiple times. not only that, but ive SURVIVED... and living, knowing that im alive, is such a strange, terrifying, liberating, and hopeless feeling.. it depicts things so perfectly, every angle of it... i remember, one time i survived, my thought process was strikingly similar. it still is, years later...  not only that, but it mentions SEPTEMBER!! i have had so many of my horrible moments in september, and the season surrounding it.. i dont know man, if you get it you get it.. im gonna drop my favorite part, maybe youll understand..

5. MY ROOTS ARE STRONG AND DEEP

this feels a little confusing to me... but i think i get it! to me, it represents feeling so little to someone, yet, wanting to reach them. viewing someone so amazing that they reach everything around you.. yet, subjectively, not you.

7. THE MANSION

this song is so overwhelmingly complex.. to me, it feels like seeing and falling in love with the idea of death, or nothingness. to some degree, it feels like its depicted as an only option. theres no surprises, theres no hills, theres no heat (his ex lover). but, its warm. its a warm nothingness to fall into.

8 + 9. SOMETHING

i get that these are instrumentals but please dont skip them. they feel like terror and realization and horror.. everything at once its so amazing and heartwrenching

12. MAP

so much weight.. this song says so little but so much. it represents a yearning, a lack. feeling empty handed.. you know this, but you dont know really what to do with it.

> i think a lot of this song is to be felt.. yea, the lyrics convey a fair bit, but everything about whatevers after it feels so strong. DEFINITELY one of my favorites from this album!! i think its very underappreciated.. id listen to this very often on the bus..!! i picture the moving houses and ground whenever i hear this again.. heres the lyrics, just for some appreciation!!

13. YOULL BE IN THE AIR

phil knows his ex partners moved on... Phil sorta uses his ex lover being on a plane as a metaphor, theyre mingling with other people, living away from him, in the air.. he finds it almost sickening that theyve done it so quickly, and wonders, if they were ever in love with him as much as he was in love with them.. if they can even tell that theyre so "above" him, AKA, moving on. PS. this song mentions his ex partner vaguely as a bear! foreshadowinggg...

> i get you phil. i get you.

14. I WANT TO BE COLD

this can be interpreted many ways!! to me, it feels like an extreme want to just not be associated with someone, and in this case, his ex lover.. its so so overwhelming he almost wants death. he uses the ongoing allegory for heat here, where he wants only the cold to get away from the fire.