Released: September 25, 2001

Genre: Lo-Fi Folk

It feels unfair to pick out any specific song from ‘The Glow, Pt.2′ to discuss individually; it seems comparable to discussing a single ingredient of a meal without respecting its role in the overall dish. Indeed, ‘The Glow, Pt.2’ is the definitive album experience, even if it’s not a traditional experience by any means. Some of the songs here are hardly songs at all, and some skeptics might even refuse to call them ‘instrumentals’. Taken out of context, certain moments of the album don’t hold up to individual scrutiny. Yet, as a whole, it is a dazzling and remarkably cohesive experience. The tracks here are musically varied and unique in their own way, but it’s all held together by Phil Elverum. His vision for the album is as cohesive as it is bizarre, his production is wacky but filled with with recurring motifs and his lyrics flow thematically from song to song, almost like reading different chapters of the same book. However, albums as sprawlingly exploratory as this one usually fall on their feet without the foundation of solid, well-written songs. Luckily, it has plenty of those too, although they are perhaps unevenly spread to the start and finish of the album. In my humble opinion, ‘The Glow, Pt.2’ has one of the best opening four song stretches of any album in the last twenty years, and today’s song discussion is about the fourth song of this particularly inspired part of the album.

Musically, ‘Headless Horsemen’ is perhaps the least challenging song on the album. Instrumentally, the biggest presence is mostly a constant acoustic guitar strum, strummed seemingly quite far from the sound hole, giving it a thin, almost ukulele-like timbre. Combined with the loose, often sloppy timing of the playing, the track has an imperfect but endearing feel to it, which is something that can said about the production of much of the album. Elsewhere, the lack of body from the guitar is replaced with random low bursts of noise in the background and the same noises can be found throughout the album. The dissonant noises don’t necessarily add much warmth to the song but they are a nice fit for the lo-fi aesthetic of the song, preventing it from ever sounding too pretty.

Lyrically, this is my favourite song on the album. That is a pretty bold claim given the wonderful evocative lyrics of songs such as ‘I Want Wind to Blow’ and ‘I Felt Your Shape’, or the painfully dense confessions of ‘The Glow, Pt.2’. However, I find it to have some of the more instantly relatable lyrics on the album, while still retaining that evocative power due to its perfectly executed metaphors.

“I got hit hard, I’m on the ground”

You know it’s a Phil Elverum song when your mood is instantly dampened by the first line. It’s a brutal first line, and it only gets better as he continues to flesh out the song. We are given beautiful folklore imagery which works well in tandem with the metaphorical, but highly visual scenery we are placed in from other songs on the album. As the metaphor fleshes out further, we realise this song is most definitely about the crumbling of a relationship. Despite the song being shrouded in mythical imagery, the meaning of the song is clear, direct and heartbreaking. “You deserve yourself / And I return from my trip to hell / As a headless horseman”. I love this line because it’s so emblematic of the petty insults people give to each other as they watch their relationship deteriorate. His heart has been broken and he’s ‘lost his head’, resulting in him lashing out and becoming angry and self-destructive.

“Oh, what I lost”

Such a simple lyrics, but one that encompasses all the sad, angry, longing, nostalgic and desperate feelings you get when you’re suddenly alone. “And I walk aimless around / With a flaming pumpkin head” adds an extra layer of depth to the headless horseman metaphor. Not only has he lost his ability to be level-headed, but he is also left with a lack of direction and purpose. He puts on a face as a coping mechanism, but it’s a highly temperamental one, and one that does not represent his true identity.

“My soft hands replaced by claws / You turned me into a stray dog, from a mighty human man”

It is not everyday that people use a fantasy metamorphosis metaphor to describe one’s personal devolution due to heartbreak. It’s a lyric that could only work in a very specific context, but this is the perfect context, and this is a perfect lyric. Self explanatory but filled with so much meaning, and yet still an amazingly visual lyric that maintains cohesion with the rest of mythical imagery of the song.

“I miss my closest friend / And now I cling to rocks and wind / It’s a precious thing we’ve lost”

A beautiful way to finish the song. All the rash, angry behaviour was just his way of dealing with the fact that his heart is in mourning, filled with remorse and regret. And all these metaphors and confessions are held together by one simple factor: the power of Phil Elverem’s voice. It’s fragile and imperfect, but there’s something very humane and relatable about his understated performance which elevates the emotional impact of the lyrics. Using vivid imagery and metaphors in songs can sometimes be a trap, it can make a song less relatable and dampen its emotional meaning. Yet, Phil Elverem hits a home run here, creating something that’s as relatable as it is clever. Metaphors often simplify human emotions for the sake of efficient lyricism, but Elverem uses them here to illuminate the complexities and contradictions of a broken heart. It’s an endearing song that plays with folklore surrealism but always stays firmly relevant to the bitter reality of the human experience. Bravo!

– The White Album