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Spirit Phone

Spirit Phone is, in my opinion, inarguably Neil Cicierega's magnum opus. Spirit Phone, in it's synth-addled and cryptically-lyriced glory, has been assimilated into my psyche for many years now. Every single song is captivating and interesting, and my ears have been ruined since I first came into contact with it. This album sets an insurpassable standard of melody and meaning that I have yet to find a replacement for. It lead me on an endless, still ongoing journey to find something as magnificently and unapologetically weird. I started to curate the media I saw, and for the first time ever, I started creating things online. I started reaching out to people. I started, although subconsciously, to understand who I wanted to be.

This album is fillied with awe and terror for the strange and unknown, and on occasion, the benign in our everyday life. The odd specific things we never sing about. Cryptids, mysteries and the crushing nature of our every-looping routines intermingle and become one awe-inspiring mass. There's a Danish word for this blend of awe and terror: ærefrygt. For when you're looking at something that is beautiful and wonderful, yet so terrifying and staggering that you are filled with a deep respect.

In addition to that, there's a very humorous absurdity to this entire album. It is hard to explain, but if you have listened to this album (which I hope you will now if you have not) you likely know what I mean.

Neil Cicierega wanted to make a perfect album when he first set out to make Spirit Phone. He spent over 8 years on it, and it certainly paid off. Spirit Phone (technically) turned 10 years old earlier this year, and so I will try my best to articulate my love for an album that is inexpressibly dear to my heart.

Lifetime Achievement Award

I love to start a roadtrip with this song. The initial muddied noise reminds me of long car rides with your family late at night. It reminds me of all the times everyone were quiet on the way back from visiting family, and how if you were to fall asleep, you'd wake up in your own bed.

Then you're quickly hooked by some extremely addictive synths and melodies. The bridge then grounds you for a little while before immediately throwing you into hectic melodies yet again. (Sorry, I don't know the musical terms.)

That vibe quickly disintegrates into a crazy tale about reviving Michael Jackson just to profit off of his likeness and abilities. This could be seen as a metaphor, but as with many of Cicierega's songs, taking the song at face value is perfectly fine. I did that for years, but as with many of these songs, getting older has made me interpret them differently.

The way this song frames guaranteed fame and profit from a well-known artist from yesteryear, really makes me think of the soulless remakes that has infested the mainstream. In Hollywood especially, remakes are prioritized to ensure profit, but in the process they mangle what the piece of media used to be. Like a mad scientist puppeteering the corpse of Michael Jackson, these people throw new and fresh ideas under the bus in favor of doing the same thing over and over again.

"This is your last ride ever forever"

As if to comfort Michael Jackson himself, he is told to not be scared. To just let it happen. To accept how he has been changed and given a new purpose. How he doesn't have to worry about who he is anymore, he just has to perform. The people who revived him dictate who he is and what he does.

The song also comments on how perpetual youth is a requirement for all of this to work, even if that is completely impossible, especially when milking the same (figurative) cow for decades.

"Good luck getting into heaven, if you live past twenty-seven"

These two goals are in clear conflict with each other. As the song itself says, this is about synthesizing heart and soul, and it comes at a cost.

...And then as if to absolve themselves of any previous or future transgressions, but mostly to inform the listener, a mantra is repeated;

"Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this record in no way endorses a belief in the occult.

Touch-Tone Telephone

I am not joking when I say this might be the song I have actively listened to the most times.

This song is infectious. I listened to it all the time when I first discovered Spirit Phone. Mentally, it brings me back... oh god it's been... 4 years already...

This is where the album captured me forever. To me, this has always felt like a love song. It sounds like one on the surface, and for a while you can pretend that it is like any other song about confessing your intense passion for someone or something, but then the bridge comes along.

The secondary melodies build and build and build as this ranting lunatic begs you to hear him out. He sweeps you up with his grandiose theories of grand conspiracies and desperation for understanding, and for a moment you forget that he is actually talking about UFOs.

Cabinet Man

I enjoy how the ominous droning after Touch-Tone Telephone is quickly interrupted by this very chipper chiptune melody.

I love Lemon Demon because between or intermingled with some quite profound messages, you find songs like Cabinet Man. How does a soul get into an arcade cabinet? Who knows, but this one likes to terrify kids. As if he was never human, the Cabinet Man loves being a menace who (presumably) hypnotizes kids to play, and then punishes them in some way if they cheat. One can only wonder if he eats them too, given what happens to maintenance men. I guess that's a way to hide the grotesque horrors inside.

There's some delicious body horror here with the speaker's human body literally being incorporated into the machine. The only thing threatening the Cabinet Man is (gasp) gameboys from Japan and delinquent teens on christmas eve. Stealing quarters sure is stealing, so I'm sure that he claimed a few more victims that night.

This song is very funny to me, and I'm sure that's the point. In what other album would you find lyrics like this? Yeah, I thought so:

"I'm happy for years and years

And, only eating the occasional maintenance man

Only driving a few kids to madness

Maybe they were predisposed to madness, who knows?"

No Eyed Girl

I love the idea of someone being so in love with a cosmic horror, that they're willing to ignore how their recklessness will cause the destruction of their own world:

"Right before the kiss, I noticed something in the air

Molecules existed when there should have been none there

Chemical reactions with the surface of your skin

Some will say my actions let the no-eyed people in"

...and then the world is absorbed into an otherworldly hum.

When He Died

I like the increasingly absurd occurences that are listed, and the instrumentals are solid, albeit a bit monotonous. It's one of the weaker songs of the album (in my opinion) but given how great all of the songs are, it's by no means a bad song.

Sweet Bod

I remember always being extremely unwilling to listen to this song when others were around me, even though I never listened to music without headphones. Yes, in fact only a very small amount of the times I have listened to this album has been without headphones. I still have a hard time playing music in my room, and I always make sure to keep the volume down. Otherwise, at least according to my brain, someone will come in and tell me that I have terrible music taste and then throw bricks at me.

Most people don't need a disclaimer that tells you that mellified man isn't sexual, but if you ever wanted to buy candied mummy, now you know.

The guitar (?) in this song is sick.

If Cicierega didn't moan with increasing intensity throughout the song, I'd play it in front of others.

Eighth Wonder

Eighth Wonder consists mostly of excerpts from the wikipedia article about the real life story of Gef the talking mongoose. He didn't actually talk (surprising, I know) and was a hoax by the family who lived in the house whose walls he supposedly lived in. This song is captivatingly melancholic. It's wonderful how such a ridiculous thing is turned into a sad story of a supernatural entity that truly does not understand what it is, and is doomed to be alone as all who looks into his eyes are turned into pillars of salt.

Ancient Aliens

The intro of this song is synth heaven. I repeat: I am in synth heaven.

One of my favourite parts of Spirit Phone, is how we hear the perspective of the strange entities, but it doesn't feel like you're supposed to interpret them one way or another. It's a bunch of strange and varying perspectives, and Ancient Aliens in particular is cryptic. That is likely by design. The speaker sounds equally as confused as I am. All interpretations I have seen are incredibly cool.

Soft Fuzzy Man

As Your Father I Expressly Forbid It

I Earn My Life

This might legitimately be my favourite song

Reaganomics

Man-made Object

Spiral of Ants

Bonus tracks:

Crisis Actors

Redesign Your Logo

Pizza Heroes

You're at the Party

For years, I listened to this album on Spotify, and on that platform You're At The Party is the last song. I generally prefer the CD's order, but I prefer this to be the final sendoff of the album.

Angry People

Recently I have grown to love this song quite a lot. Suddenly, the pieces fell into place and I realized that this was not one of Cicierega's typical "What if this crazy thing happened?" type of songs. I do like those, but Angry People seems to ultimately be about the violence and apathy that our modern world inspires in people. How we are all panicked and scared, but end up targeting each other. It's presented in an absurd fashion, but as I've gotten older, the scenario seems less and less overblown and unrealistic.

Geocities

Angelfire

Gravitron

Moon's Request

Sweet Bod (Demo)

Cat Hacks

Cabinet Man (Demo)

Kubrick and the Beast

Other things about this album:

The CD is genuinely so cool. It's red!