The album takes influences from numerous music genres such as black metal, ambient and avant-garde, as well as non-musical sources like the American drama television show Twin Peaks and primary member Phil Elverum's relationship to Khaela Maricich.

2 diverts from the band's previous studio release It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, and features experimental production, alongside musical techniques and lyrics that often reference nature and the Pacific Northwest.

[6] Elverum created the distortion on the album via "running the guitar through the mic input on a thrift store cassette deck, then out the headphone jack into the amp".

[11] The lyrics are performed in a stream of consciousness manner and frequently reference nature and the Pacific Northwest while exhibiting a sense of longing.

[10] Sudden piano stabs and abrupt rhythm and key changes are present throughout The Glow Pt.

[11] Themes of flesh, blood, water, wood, life, death and overcoming depression are also central to the album.

[3] "The album's third track, "The Moon", features acoustic guitar chords alongside Elverum whispering lyrics, with him having found the inspiration for the song in his routine nightly walks.

"Map" opens with a brief interlude that consists of a foghorn, which leads into distorted organs, a kick drum, and vocals.

[21] It then transitions to a simplistic melody accompanied by metaphorical lyrics, childlike vocals, synths, pianos and double-timed drums, before concluding with a foghorn.

[11] The final song "My Warm Blood" is an ambient composition, which resembles the opener "I Want Wind to Blow".

[15] After releasing the album on September 11, 2001,[1] Elverum went on The Paper Opera Tour alongside Calvin Johnson and Khaela Maricich.

The album was released under his label P. W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd.[27] Due to K Records failure to properly bookkeep, it is unknown how many copies of The Glow Pt.

[24] Stylus Magazine's Tyler Martin asserted that the Microphones "spew innovation every second of this disc" and noted that the album "promises something you have never heard before and delivers it, perhaps more than you'd expect".

[30] Matt LeMay of Pitchfork called the album an "alive" and "sprawling, swirling composition", while stating that "parts of The Glow Pt.

[42] Konstantinos Pappis of Our Culture Mag described the album as "seminal", while Daniel Mescher called it a "widely regarded indie pop classic".

2, as an important release in Elverum's career, stating that it "began to make the Microphones an indie rock commodity".

[5] Aquarium Drunkard, and Thomas Britt of PopMatters also saw the album as important for Elverum's career, viewing it as the culmination of his work as part of the Microphones, with Britt writing that "The introspective lyrics and rough, yet complex, sonic textures of Phil Elverum's Microphones output reached an unparalleled peak with The Glow Pt.

[46][b] Canadian record producer Ryan Hemsworth sampled "Instrumental" in a mash-up with Three Six Mafia’s "Late Nite Tip" (1996).

[48] American singer-songwriter Kevin Morby's third studio album Singing Saw (2016) was inspired by The Glow Pt.

2 remained Elverum's "crowning achievement" and that "seven years of imitation have done nothing to dull its impact—it sounds as unaccountably grand now as it did in 2001".

described the album as "a brave new world where solar noise bursts over sprawling epics of the most intimate nature", and stated that "it's clear age hasn't tainted the kaleidoscopic Glow Pt.

[53] Under the Radar writer Wendy Lynch praised the album and labelled the Microphones as "one of the most original, interesting bands to come out in the last 3 years".

[34] In The Guardian's "Hidden treasures" column, Hancox described the album as "a masterstroke" and "a millennial Daydream Nation".

2 as an "essential work of modern indie",[57] while Stereogum's retrospective feature on it stated that the album's "bond with listeners, as individuals" surpasses its critical success.

[69] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard chose "Instrumental", the album's sixth track, as one of the "greatest interludes of all time".

2 included a second disc, Other Songs & Destroyed Versions, which contains 20 additional tracks that were composed during and after the recording of the album.

The term "destroyed version" refers to Elverum isolating and "unmixing" the songs that appeared on The Glow Pt.

[53] Howe asserted that while "none of the new lyrics clarify the overarching story", the new tracks on the album "reveal a few more glimpses of a distant, haunting world that's all the more alluring for its incompleteness".

[35] Writing for PopMatters, Dan Raper stated that "Microphones fans will find Other Songs & Destroyed Versions more than worth the investment.

[11] In a mixed review, John Lingan of Splice Today wrote: "I can’t imagine anyone but a long-since converted Microphones nut sifting through this material."