Purple Mountains (album)

Berman performing his final show with Silver Jews in 2009.

In January 2009, David Berman disbanded Silver Jews, playing one final show on January 31 at the Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee.[7][8] He later revealed that he was frustrated with the reception to the final Silver Jews album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008), including a 6.7/10 review from Pitchfork. In a podcast interview with Vish Khanna in 2019, Berman said, "In that point, in 2008, a Pitchfork review really meant a lot [...] That really burned me for a long time. I really tried as hard as I could, and I really got the message back that maybe I had peaked. So I decided to walk away from it."[9] Berman also said he felt older musicians stuck around too long, and that he could step away and make room for someone else.[10] When Silver Jews disbanded, Berman retreated to his house in Nashville, Tennessee and "buried" himself in books. In an interview with The Washington Post in 2019, Berman said, "I saw no one and did nothing."[11] Berman, who long suffered from treatment-resistant depression, said to Khanna, "There probably were a hundred nights over the last ten years where I was sure I wouldn't make it to the morning. Yeah, I'm a very depressed person. And I felt even worse about myself as time went on and I wasn't doing anything. So I do feel better now having completed this project."[12] When his mother died in 2014,[13] Berman was inspired exactly a week later to pick up his guitar and play while he was in her house in Wooster, Ohio. He eventually came back to the chord progression he had played and it became "I Loved Being My Mother's Son", the first song written for the album.[14][15][16] He also separated from his wife of twenty years, Cassie Berman.[11][14] Berman said they did not divorce[17] and were still friends, commenting, "She's all I have as far as family anymore."[18] Their separation is the subject of the album's third track, "Darkness and Cold". [19] It also inspired the album's sixth track, "She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger".[20][15] Berman also attributed his return to music as a necessity for an income in order to pay down the over $100,000 of debt he amassed in credit card debt and loans, which he said was always over his head and "draining to worry about."[21]

In Nashville, Berman befriended The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, who had recently moved to the city. The two would sometimes collaborate, with Auerbach writing music and Berman writing lyrics, but Berman backed out as Auerbach focused on other projects.[11] However, Auerbach has a songwriting credit on the tenth and final track on Purple Mountains, "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me".[22] Auerbach's side project, The Arcs, performed an early version of the song on their 2016 tour.[23][24] Berman also co-wrote The Arcs' song "Young", which was released in November 2015 as part of their six-song EP The Arcs vs. The Inventors Vol. I.[25]

The album was originally to be produced in Vancouver by Dan Bejar, but the sessions were later scrapped.

Berman first reached out to Canadian musician and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar through e-mail in the fall of 2016.[26] He did not know Bejar personally but was a fan of his music and had read Bejar say positive things about Silver Jews.[27] Bejar had never produced before but told Berman he was willing to try,[28] and the two made loose plans to work together.[26] Berman, who "famously obsessed over his lyrics,"[11] went on an "extended eight-month West Coast walkabout".[29] He spent time writing in Joshua Tree, California. His wife Cassie came out for his 50th birthday in January 2017 and they rented a place in Malibu. He then drove to Portland, Oregon, and rented another place for three months in order to write.[30] From April to July 2017, Bejar and David Carswell set out to produce the album at JC/DC Studios in Vancouver, Canada. The band for the sessions included members of Destroyer.[26] Berman's longtime friend Stephen Malkmus, the frontman of Pavement and a fellow founding member of Silver Jews, also worked in the studio for a few days.[26][31] Berman stayed in Point Roberts, Washington, a US enclave located south of Vancouver.[32] He attempted to write there, but found he could not finish the lyrics.[33] Bejar recommended recording the music first and finishing the lyrics later.[34] Berman felt the music they recorded was "rigid" and ultimately found writing lyrics for the music, which he had never done before, to be impossible.[35] Berman returned home to Nashville to re-write the album and eventually found his previous problems had "solved themselves."[36] In a January 2020 interview with Pitchfork, Bejar reflected that he had trouble getting Berman to sing in the studio and that, compared to the songs on Purple Mountains, the songs they recorded were "incredibly loud and brittle and dry and compressed" with vocals similar to that of Serge Gainsbourg. Bejar also revealed that there are "halfway to final mixes of an album's worth of music" but that the decision to release them is up to Drag City. Bejar also said that he is unsure if Berman "would have wanted the world to hear it."[26] Berman also recorded an entire album with Black Mountain in Vancouver, but it was scrapped. Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy also did "spec production work" on a few songs, but Berman decided to go in a different direction for the full album.[11]

Jeremy Earl (left) and Jarvis Taveniere (right) of the band Woods produced the album in Chicago.

On February 14, 2018, Valentine's Day, Berman separated from his wife and drove from Nashville to Miller Beach, a neighborhood of Gary, Indiana.[14] He lived there in Gary for part of 2018 in a "vacation cabin" owned by Drag City.[37][38] In June 2018, Berman moved to Chicago, Illinois, living alone in a spare room above the Drag City office.[38][39][13] He eventually reached out to Jeremy Earl of the band Woods very early in the morning by email.[11] He asked Earl and fellow Woods member Jarvis Taveniere, both of whom he had never spoken to before, to produce the album.[40] The two, who had listened to Silver Jews together for years, agreed almost immediately.[13] The album was recorded primarily at Jamdek Studios in Chicago, with some parts recorded at Thump Studios in Brooklyn, New York.[22][41] Most of the album was recorded live with Berman occupying a booth while Earl and Taveniere were together in a separate room.[13] Berman had pages of alternative lyrics for each song with him.[11] They did multiple sessions of overdubs and Berman wanted to retry vocals. However, for many of the songs they ended up using the original first take vocals because, according to Taveniere, "they were hard to match."[13] The last song Berman wrote for the album was "Darkness and Cold", which he also claimed as his favorite on the album.[42] The album also features contributions from Woods drummer Aaron Neveu and from singer-songwriter Anna St. Louis, who recorded her vocals in an hour during a mixing session in Los Angeles.[13] The album was mixed by Taveniere in November 2018[43] at Electrical Audio in Chicago.[22]

Khanna and Berman both viewed the album as a "break-up record". The opening two songs feature dark lyricsm juxtaposed against "jolly" instrumention. "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me" was intended as to be from an incel's perspective and was, in his eyes, the "ultimate neo-liberal love song, as we sit in a place of peak individualism".[44]

The album's lyrics are heavily inspired by Berman's lifetime struggle with depression and addiction and the circumstances of his life in the years preceding his death. He had separated from his wife and told Vish Khanna, "I don't have any desire to be in a relationship with anyone else, and I do feel like I’m on the other side of my career of being a Lothario".[45] After his death, some listeners suggested that the album may have been a suicide note.[46][47] Gate Pratt, a college friend and writing partner of Berman's, has said that he discussed many songs including "Darkness and Cold" and "She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger" with Berman many years before Purple Mountains. Pratt has dismissed the notion that the album is a "suicide note". Commenting on "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me", Pratt said: "That song was intended to be hopeful and upbeat and optimistic — like a recognition that you could be happy alone. Him putting that song at the end of the album was intentional and, I think, meant to signal, 'I'm okay with all this.'"[45]

On December 12, 2018, former Pavement and Silver Jews member Bob Nastanovich revealed on his podcast Three Songs that David Berman would release new music in 2019 under the name Purple Mountains, which was also the name of Berman's blog.[48] The name "Purple Mountains" is a mondegreen of the lyric "Purple mountain majesties" from "America the Beautiful".[13] Although, his blog was also titled Menthol Mountains at times.[49]

On May 10, 2019, the single "All My Happiness Is Gone" was released on vinyl by Drag City. The single included two remixes of the song, "All My Happiness Is Wrong" by Noah Count and "All My Happiness Is Long" by Mark Nevers featuring clipped recordings of Dave Cloud, and also indicated that a full-length album was a "couple months away." It credited Berman as well as Jeremy Earl, Jarvis Taveniere, and Aaron Neveu of Woods and songwriter Anna St. Louis.[50][51] The single was released digitally on May 17, 2019, with the announcement of a full-length album.[52] A remix of "All My Happiness Is Gone" by Australian electronic music group The Avalanches, who Berman has collaborated with in the past, was commissioned by him, but a licensing issue prevented their version from being released.[53]

"Darkness and Cold" was released as the album's second single on June 11, 2019.[54]

"Margaritas at the Mall" was released as the album's third and final single on June 28, 2019.[55]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.3/10[60]
Metacritic	87/100[61]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[62]
Consequence of Sound	A−[63]
The Guardian	[64]
The Irish Times	[65]
Mojo	[66]
Pitchfork	8.5/10[67]
Q	[68]
Rolling Stone	[69]
The Times	[70]
Uncut	9/10[71]

Purple Mountains was lauded by critics upon its release. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on 20 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[61]

Ben Beaumont-Thomas of The Guardian gave the album a perfect score, writing, "Cries for help have rarely been so clear, self-aware, and funny."[64] Writing for Uncut, Erin Osmon gave the album a 9 out of 10, writing, "The 10 songs assembled here owe as much to Townes Van Zandt's picaresque story songs as they do Dylan's sardonic poetics; they all gnaw at the heart and consciousness. Berman sings of life's travails in fluid and acrobatic phrasing, with each spin revealing a nuance in tone or pronunciation that turns the lyric in a profound or unexpected way, a slow reveal that begs repeat listens. It's unequivocally dark, relatable and addictive."[71] Alex Wisgard of The Line of Best Fit called the album "one of the year's most rewarding" and "most honest".[72] Brian Howe of Spin said, "The arrangements, some of the most gracious Berman's ever had, hum and glow with foggy organs and soft golden horns. Their serenity is at odds with his desperation: This is a portrait of a shattered man."[73]

Chris DeVille of Stereogum called the album a "devastating self-portrait, delivered one bracingly literal observation at a time".[74] Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Mark Richardson said that Berman's "lyrics remain idiosyncratic marvels of wrenching, wry hilarity" and "Purple Mountains [...] picks up where his earlier group left off. The production is a bit more ornate and the songs reflect another decade of hard living, but this is a Silver Jews record in all but name, and a very good one."[75] Writing for Slate, Carl Wilson said, "The relative plainspokenness of Purple Mountains is a sign of a maturing craft, of not wanting to play evasive games."[76] Lauren Murphy of The Irish Times said, "At all times, Berman's ruminative voice is a commanding force over scuffled indie, toe-tappy country pop and occasional Mariachi-style infusions of brass. It's good to have him back."[65]

In a less favorable review, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times said, "Although his monotonous vocal style and a lack of musical variation prevent the album from really taking off, its movement towards consolation with the irresistible "Storyline Fever" feels like a deserved victory."[77]

In September 2019 at the Woodsist Festival in Accord, New York, Woods performed a tribute to Berman. Taveniere and Earl, accompanied by Kevin Morby, Kyle Field and Anna St. Louis, performed "All My Happiness is Gone" with Field on lead vocals. They closed with a performance of Silver Jews's "Random Rules", with Kevin Morby on lead vocals.[108]

On October 7, 2019, the tribute album Approaching Perfection: A Tribute To DC Berman was released. It features a cover of "Snow Is Falling in Manhattan" by Galaxie 500's Dean Wareham.[109]

On January 4, 2020, Union Pool in Brooklyn hosted DCBday, two concerts in tribute to David Berman on his birthday. Proceeds went to Musicares and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The lineup included The Hold Steady's Craig Finn, Ken Griffin (August Wells) and Silver Jews members Steve West and Matt Hunter. Purple Mountains collaborators Cassandra Jenkins and Kyle Forester appeared as well as Titus Andronicus' Patrick Stickles also appeared. Members of Berman's former band at UVA, Ectoslavia, also appeared. Steve Keene created hundreds of paintings for sale at the event.[110][111] The same day, the birthday tribute concert "Bike Chain Rain: A Birthday Tribute to David Cloud Berman" was held at Bunk Bar in Portland, Oregon. The show featured Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich of Pavement.[112] William Tyler and Rebecca Gates (The Spinanes) covered "Snow Falling in Manhattan".[113] Also on the same day, Speedy Ortiz organized "Philly Remembers David Berman: A Birthday Tribute" at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.[114]

In November 2020, a cover of "Snow Is Falling in Manhattan" by Chilly Gonzales was released on his Christmas album A very chilly christmas. It features vocals by Jarvis Cocker and Feist.[115]

Lyrics from "Darkness and Cold" appear on the album We Will Always Love You (2020) by The Avalanches. The lyrics appear on the track "Dial D for Devotion", sung by Karen O, and on the track "Running Red Lights", sung by Pink Siifu.[116][117] Berman first collaborated with The Avalanches in 2012, on their track "A Cowboy Overflow of the Heart", which featured Berman reading a poem he composed over music by the group.[118] Berman later appeared as a vocalist on The Avalanches' album Wildflower (2016), reading a poem on the album's closing track "Saturday Night Inside Out".[119][120]

On January 5, 2021, Jeff Tweedy covered "Snow Is Falling in Manhattan" with his sons Sammy and Spencer on The Tweedy Show.[121]

On January 27, 2023, the Arcs released Electrophonic Chronic, a collection of unreleased tracks largely recorded before the death of Arcs member Richard Swift. The album's closing track, "Only One for Me", is the original version of "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me" that Berman and Auerbach created. Due to the band's touring and side projects, recording for a new Arcs album had stalled. Berman grew disappointed that the band had not released more of the music they wrote together. Berman would spend several years developing the song that became "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me", giving it a "jaunty country" sound and a "darker, more despondent" lyrical slant.[45]

Credits adapted from liner notes.[22]

• Khanna, Vish (June 12, 2019). "Ep. #481: David Berman". Kreative Kontrol (Podcast).
• Nastanovich, Bob; Hogan, Mike (December 12, 2018). "Episode 79 - December 12, 2018 (Silver Jews Spotlight)". 3 Songs Podcast (Podcast).