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It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, sometimes shortened to It Was Hot, is the second studio album by American indie folk and indie rock band the Microphones. It was released via K Records on September 26, 2000. After Phil Elverum gained a small following and presence in K Records with 1999's Don't Wake Me Up, he recorded It Was Hot in Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington, between September 24, 1999 and March 6, 2000. Since the album was recorded on analogue tape, technical imperfections were embraced. The album, described as indie rock, lo-fi, and indie pop, centers on the theme of water, inspired by Elverum's visits to the ocean. The album's lyricism is heavily themed on nature. The 11-minute track "The Glow" acts as the album's climax and introduces the concept of the "glow" which is later continued on 2001's The Glow Pt. 2.

It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water
Studio album by the Microphones
Released	September 26, 2000
Recorded	September 24, 1999 – March 6, 2000
Studio	Dub Narcotic Studio (Olympia, Washington)
Genre	Indie rock lo-fi indie pop
Length	41:24
Label	K Records P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.
The Microphones chronology
Window (2000) It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water (2000) Blood (2001)

It Was Hot received positive reviews from Pitchfork, AllMusic and Sputnikmusic. Pitchfork included the album at number seven on their list of the "Top 20 Albums of 2000". The album received more reviews following its 2013 reissue, including positive reviews from PopMatters, Consequence of Sound, and Treblezine. The album is frequently compared to The Glow Pt. 2; It Was Hot is commonly said to be overshadowed by it.

Background

Phil Elverum—the frontman of the Microphones—released Don't Wake Me Up in 1999. The album, recorded in modest studio equipment, "set a new precedent" for K Records, due to Elverum's production being perceived as high-quality despite recording limitations.[1]^: 233 As a result of Don't Wake Me Up, Elverum gained a small following,[2] and K Records gained a greater trust in Elverum's musical abilities.[1]^: 234 Prior to It Was Hot's release, Elverum released two seven-inch singles, Moon Moon and Feedback (Life, Love, Loop).[2]

Recording

The album was recorded at Dub Narcotic Studio in Olympia, Washington,[3][4] between September 24, 1999 and March 6, 2000.[4] Elverum realized the tracks he was recording were comprising an album, not singles or compilation tracks, when about half of the tracks were finished.[5] The album was recorded on analogue tape, which caused greater difficulty in re-recording takes, leading Elverum to not pursue perfection.[5] He described this as the "technological reason for pursuing charismatic sloppiness".[5] The album makes little use of reverb effects.[3] Elverum did not write all of the album's parts, as he explained, "No, there was definitely a sense of collaboration. [...] I had ideas, but then I was also open to other people's ideas".[5] For example, Khaela Maricich wrote "(something)".[5] Elverum's lyrics were inspired by the poeticness and mysteriousness of Will Oldham's lyrics.[4]

Music and themes

It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water is an indie rock,[6] lo-fi,[5] and indie pop[7] album.

The album's lyricism is themed heavily on nature, influenced by Elverum's home town being in the Pacific Northwest.[5] Elverum explained, "when I was 21, [...] using these big, huge natural world metaphors to try and tell my own stories, I think I couldn't see outside of it. [...] It was like my only vocabulary."[5] The album was the first in a trilogy of albums themed on nature where it represented the theme of water;[3][6] The Glow, Pt. 2 represented fire and air, and Mount Eerie represented rock.[6] During recording, Elverum frequently visited the ocean in Westport, Washington, contributing to the album's theme of water.[5] The album introduced the concept of the "glow" on the 11-minute track "The Glow"; the concept was continued on The Glow, Pt. 2.[6] Elverum described the "glow" as a "glowing window that you see as you are freezing to death in the snow, or the light you go into supposedly when you die".[8]

The opening track, "The Pull", begins with an acoustic guitar that rhythmically pans between the left and right speakers.[9] The acoustic guitar later gives way to a dynamics shift: a burst of noisy guitars and reverbed snare drums, described by LeMay as a "sonic blast".[10][9] LeMay also wrote, "despite the dissonance and the atypical song structure, the track never breaks down into complete anarchy".[9] According to Adam Nelson of The Line of Best Fit, the lyrics of the track are about being free from a physical form; Nelson wrote, "[the track] makes death into an absolving liberation".[11] The short-lived "Ice" begins with a similar blast of noise and percussion, before winding down to an acoustic section.[9][12] Pop track "Sand" is a cover of the 1993 Eric's Trip song of the same name.[13][14] The cover, described by LeMay as "otherworldly", uses building layers of vocal harmonies and instrumentation.[9] "Sand" ends abruptly, with the sound of the tape reel running out.[5]

The 11-minute "The Glow," which acts as the album's climax, is made of separate segments, disjointedly connected.[9] “The Glow” varies in sound fidelity, and uses elements of noise and drones.[10] The track ends softer, with organs and emotional vocals from Elverum.[10] Neil Kelly of PopMatters described the track as having an "epic genre-bending strut".[12] "Karl Blau," in the style of 1950s pop,[13][3] is named after collaborator Karl Blau.[5] The song was partly inspired by a dream Elverum had about Blau.[5] Drum solos solely comprise the three-minute track "Drums," described by Sputnikmusic's joshuatree as a "cacophony".[10] "The Gleam" is a pop song filled with noisy audio feedback; Elverum's vocals are barely audible against the noise.[10][3] According to joshuatree, "The Gleam" includes elements of drones, similar to "The Glow".[10] "Between Your Ear and the Other Ear" uses elements of freak folk and audio feedback.[10] The album's closer, "Organs," uses a swell of multitracked distorted guitars and keyboards, described by LeMay as "ominous".[9][13]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[14]
Consequence of Sound	[6]
NME	8/10[15]
Pitchfork	9.2/10[9]
PopMatters	8/10[12]
Spectrum Culture	4.5/5[13]
Sputnikmusic	4.5/5[10]

Contemporaneous

In Heather Phares of AllMusic's undated[lower-alpha 1] review, they said the band "presents delicate, almost folky melodies wrapped up in and surrounded by waves of droning, distorted guitars and organs".[14] Phares compared tracks from the album to other artists, but affirmed that the band's similarities "feel like tributes", not plagiarism.[14] In Matt LeMay of Pitchfork's review at the time of the album's release, it was rated 9.2 out of 10.[9] LeMay praised the album's originality and how it breaks rock music's conventions, providing an "element of surprise" he finds missing in rock.[9] Pitchfork later included the album at number seven in their year-end list of the "Top 20 Albums of 2000".[16]

Retrospective

Sputnikmusic's joshuatree reviewed the album in 2008, and praised the "unpredictable nature of the album" calling it Phil Elverum's next best album, after The Glow pt. 2.[10] Multiple publications released reviews of the album following its 2013 reissue. Neil Kelly of PopMatters wrote "in hindsight, it really is a miracle that music with these kinds of dynamics would see the daylight".[12] Kelly praised the album for its sonic diversity, and the production of “The Glow”; Kelley called the album a "feast of inspiration to revisit time and time again."[12] Of the album, Spectrum Culture's Joe Clinkenbeard wrote, "an Elverum LP that thrives on chaos, quiet and in juxtaposing the two?".[13] Steven Arroyo of Consequence of Sound wrote, "The Microphones sound is inseparable from nature and the outdoors [...] and so too is It Was Hot from the magical glowing buzz of a summer night swim, about which Elverum repeatedly sings."[6] Paul Pearson of Treblezine noted the album's recording imperfections and its intimacy.[3] Pearson wrote, "[the album] is a study in subjection and liberation, crossing through warmed tides to ice and back again."[3] According to Daniel Mescher of Colorado Public Radio, the album is "widely regarded as [an] indie pop classic."[7] Patrick Lyons of Steregum reviewed the album in 2020, comparing "The Pull"'s opening guitar to the opening of the then-newly released Microphones in 2020.[17] According to Lyons, the album solidified the sound of Don't Wake Me Up without giving up its "roughshod charm".[17] Martin Douglas of KEXP reviewed the album in 2022, and noted Elverum's boyish voice, the album's intimacy, and the inspiration the album had on "any weirdo singer/songwriter crafting dense musical epics in their basement since the turn of the century".[5]

It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water is commonly described as overshadowed by the more popular The Glow, Pt. 2.[4][13][10] Martin Douglas of KEXP wrote, "Not many artists can say they wrote their masterpiece [It Was Hot] and then a year later, wrote another masterpiece [The Glow, Pt. 2]".[4] Spectrum Culture's Joe Clinkenbeard called The Glow, Pt. 2 the album's "better known sibling" and said It Was Hot "was given little chance to sit with listeners".[13] Sputnikmusic's joshuatree described The Glow Pt. 2 as Elverum's "peak," but still called It Was Hot its "just-as-pretty twin" with "too little attention directed towards" it.[10] According to Patrick Lyons of Steregum, It Was Hot "lacks the vast scope and deep emotional core of its follow-up" but it "unfairly lived in the shadow" of The Glow Pt. 2.[17] Elverum said, "I mostly don't pay that much attention to how the stuff I've made is ranked in comparison to itself".[5]

Track listing

All tracks written and performed by the Microphones.[lower-alpha 2]

Personnel

Adapted from the album's liner notes.[4]

• Phil Elverum
• Khaela Maricich
• Mirah
• Jenn Kliese
• Anna Oxygen
• Karl Blau
• Jason Wall
• Calvin Johnson

Release history

Release dates and formats for It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water[18]

Region	Date	Format	Label	Catalog num.
United States	September 26, 2000	LP, CD	K Records	KLP116
United States	May 28th, 2013	LP, Digital download	P.W. Elverum & Sun	ELV029

Notes

References

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