Lost Wisdom

Lost Wisdom is the second album by Mount Eerie, with Canadian musicians Julie Doiron and Frederick Squire. It was released 7 October 2008 on P. W. Elverum & Sun, less than a month before Elverum's next album, Dawn was released, which featured songs from this album. A follow up album, Lost Wisdom pt. 2, was released in 2019, without Frederick Squire.

Background

Elverum considers Doiron his favorite singer, and says recording with her was a "dream come true" for him. She was a member of Eric's Trip, an indie noise pop band from the early 1990s, and has since recorded numerous solo albums. Elverum considers Eric's Trip his favorite band of all time, and says the band is "the reason why I got into playing music". On The Microphones' 2000 album It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, he covered the Eric's Trip song "Sand" from their 1993 EP Songs About Chris. The Microphones song "I Felt You", from the 1999 album Don't Wake Me Up, samples the Eric's Trip song "May 11" from the 1993 album Love Tara.

A different version of the song "With My Hands Out" appears on Mount Eerie's 2004 release Seven New Songs, and other tracks later appeared on Dawn, released on 1 November 2008. Though the versions found on Dawn are actually the original recordings of those songs done in 2002. The track "Voice in Headphones" on this album reprises the chorus from Björk's song "Undo", over a different verse. Elverum had previously covered Björk's "All Is Full of Love" on the 2001 Microphones album Blood.

Recording and Release

The recording of the album was somewhat spontaneous. Doiron and Squire had a few days between a recent tour and an upcoming recording session in Olympia, Washington, and made a surprise visit to Phil Elverum in Anacortes. Although Elverum was reluctant to ask the two to record an album, the three decided to do so and quickly recorded the album.

The album was released on the 7th October on Lp and Cd, the Vinyl version included a double-sided jumbo poster. The album was re-released in 2019 in a double cd set alongside companion album Lost Wisdom pt.2

Reception

Upon release, the album received critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from music critics, the album has received an average score of 82, indicating "universal acclaim", based on 8 reviews.

Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that despite the fast time to create the album "its simplicity and immediacy sound intimate instead of tossed off." she also complimented the chemistry between Elverum and Dorion writing that "He and Doiron sound completely natural yet haunting trading verses"

Track listing

References 

Category:Mount Eerie albums
Category:Julie Doiron albums
Category:2008 albums
Category:Frederick Squire albums