The project of lo-fi mastermind Phil Elverum in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Microphones introduced his searching, deeply personal music. Though he released a handful of albums during the project's original run, each one expanded his music's ambitions, and the ambitions of indie rock and pop by extension. As early as 1999's Don't Wake Me Up, Elverum's lo-fi music was both sophisticated and direct, sometimes heartbreakingly so. His fragile voice was the perfect counterpoint to his sprawling, intricately arranged and produced music, particularly on 2001's classic The Glow, Pt. 2. On 2003's Mount Eerie, he further expanded his free-flowing songwriting and the touches of ambient, folk, and black metal that he continued to explore as Mount Eerie later in the 2000s. When Elverum returned to the project with The Microphones in 2020, the strengths he had established years before were even richer.