What We All Come to Need

In late 2008, Pelican recognized a decline in group morale and in concert attendance, so the band considered slowing touring.[3] However, they were already signed up for a tour in mid-2009 prior to the recording of What We All Come to Need, leading to some frustration in the members who wanted to not burn out.[3]

The album was recorded in three weeks during the summer of 2009 with a generous recording budget from Southern Lord Records, the group's new label after leaving Hydra Head Records.[3][4] The inspiration of a new setting and label, though, wasn't enough to offset the band's fatigue.[4] According to guitarist Trevor de Brauw, the tour leading up to What We All Come to Need, the recording of the album, and the tour following the album made up Pelican's darkest times.[3] De Brauw's mother was sick, the band had been on the road extensively, and morale was generally low.[3] As such, What We All Come to Need eschews some of the joyous aspects of Pelican's music, adopting a dark tone that would be further explored in the band's followup album, Forever Becoming (2013).

Pelican enlisted several guest musicians to contribute to the album, including guitarists Greg Anderson of Sunn O))) and Aaron Turner of Isis, and, most notably, vocalist Allen Epley of The Life and Times and Shiner.[5] Epley sang on the closing song "Final Breath", which made this album the first studio album from Pelican to feature a track with vocals. Bassist Bryan Herweg wrote "Final Breath", and from the beginning he conceptualized the song as having vocals.[3] De Brauw described hearing the full version of the song for the first time as "a real positive moment in all the darkness."[3] The song "Ephemeral" previously appeared on the EP of the same name, while the song "An Inch Above Sand", appearing originally as "Inch Above Sand" on Pelican's split with Young Widows, was re-recorded for the album.

Musically, What We All Come to Need is a predominantly instrumental post-metal album. Some publications saw it as Pelican's most accessible release to date,[6] and the album was praised for conveying a sort of silent narrative.[7] Much of the music is melodic, but the guitars are weighty and downtuned, providing the slow and distorted riffs that define post-metal.[6]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	79/100[8]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[6]
Alternative Press	[9]
Beyond Race	(lukewarm)[10]
Lambgoat	8/10[11]
Pitchfork Media	5.5/10[12]
PopMatters	[7]
Rock Sound	8/10[13]

What We All Come to Need was released on October 27, 2009. In celebration of the album's release, Kuma’s Corner, a Chicago-based restaurant two blocks from guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec's home, offered a custom burger known as the Pelican burger. The one-night-only dish consisted of a ten-ounce Kobe beef patty, with pan-seared scallops and lardons, in a garlic white-wine sauce on top of a Parmesan crisp, and served with white wine–garlic aioli. Ironically, both Schroeder-Lebec and Trevor de Brauw are vegans and therefore could not eat the specialized dish.[4]

The song "Ephemeral" appeared in the end credits of the 2013 horror video game Dead Space 3.[14]

All credits adapted from liner notes of the album.[5]