Night Palace

With such a varied work—there are even allusions to popular music, like a short sequence of trap hi-hats and Auto-Tune on “I Spoke with a Fish”—some kind of structure becomes vital. But the album’s song sequencing feels arbitrary, and the sound mix obscures much of what Elverum is trying to convey. And yet, because Night Palace defies easy categorization, it ultimately offers a welcome challenge, as mysterious and fickle as nature itself.