Mount Eerie: "Voice in Headphones"

So here’s my take on this. “Voice in Headphones”—which borrows its chorus lyric from Björk’s “Undo,” repeated with the same basic cadence for most of its two and a half minutes—is an homage, yes, but not thievery or veiled cover. Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum adapts the hook for some awfully pretty meta-fawning instead of just tossing it in without context or knowing wink. There’s a point to this, and it’s sort of cute.

First though, for those unfamiliar with “Undo,” off Björk’s stunning Vespertine (2001), here:

Gorgeous, right? Elverum, clearly, would agree: “I’ll no longer hide it / Yes you move me to tears over and over … Every time I get my face dry you sing: / ‘It’s not meant to be a strife / It’s not meant to be a struggle uphill.’” As a mini-choir lead by Julie Doiron repeats the lyric into a bittersweet mantra, Elverum builds on his adoration toward a hefty conclusion: “Yes the way you say it stirs me to the core / Every time … the tears fall and the universe is shone.”

Ok. So maybe it’s not so much my “take” as what’s spelled out: “Voice in Headphones” is a straightforward, endearing love song for Björk and “Undo” and the transportive power of really great music. Elverum immerses himself in the whole mystical experience—the entire process from somewhat alien conception to its billowing out of headphones into his (likely also weeping) ears. The best part being how he can’t help but ponder all of this out loud, mid-fucking-song, dropping some impressive hyperbole while bewildered at exactly why or how this “voice” can have such power over him in the first place. He ultimately sighs and surrenders to its ability to jerk tears of happiness and open up universes and shit (“Who are you, who are you / Who has come to fill this room / Well come on, welcome in”), content in offering up his own bit of headphone soma in turn, like a snake eating its tail in two-part harmony.