Purple Mountains is the only studio album by American indie rock band Purple Mountains. The album was released on July 12, 2019, by Drag City. It is the final overall album by David Berman before his death on August 7, 2019, less than four weeks after the album's release.

Purple Mountains was the first new studio album from David Berman since the disbandment of Silver Jews in 2009. Created over the course of four years, the album went through numerous failed attempts at writing and recording with different musicians and producers including Dan Auerbach, Dan Bejar, Stephen Malkmus and Jeff Tweedy. It was eventually recorded in 2018 with members of the band Woods, in both Chicago and Brooklyn. Woods members Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl produced the album.

The album's themes were inspired by the death of Berman's mother, his retirement from music, his struggles with depression, and his strained relationship with his wife. Berman also made the album in hopes of paying down a six-figure debt he had built up. It was preceded by the singles "All My Happiness Is Gone", "Darkness and Cold", and "Margaritas at the Mall". On release, the album received critical acclaim and was featured in numerous year-end lists.

In January 2009, David Berman disbanded Silver Jews, playing one final show on January 31 at the Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, Tennessee. He later revealed that he was frustrated with the reception to the final Silver Jews album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008), including a 6.7/10 review from Pitchfork. In a podcast interview with Vish Khanna in 2019, Berman said, "In that point, in 2008, a Pitchfork review really meant a lot [...] That really burned me for a long time. I really tried as hard as I could, and I really got the message back that maybe I had peaked. So I decided to walk away from it." Berman also said he felt older musicians stuck around too long, and that he could step away and make room for someone else. When Silver Jews disbanded, Berman retreated to his house in Nashville, Tennessee and "buried" himself in books. In an interview with The Washington Post in 2019, Berman said, "I saw no one and did nothing." Berman, who long suffered from treatment-resistant depression, said to Khanna, "There probably were a hundred nights over the last ten years where I was sure I wouldn't make it to the morning. Yeah, I'm a very depressed person. And I felt even worse about myself as time went on and I wasn't doing anything. So I do feel better now having completed this project."

When his mother died in 2014, Berman was inspired exactly a week later to pick up his guitar and play while he was in her house in Wooster, Ohio. He eventually came back to the chord progression he had played and it became "I Loved Being My Mother's Son", the first song written for the album. He also separated from his wife of twenty years, Cassie Berman, in 2018. Berman said they did not divorce and were still friends, commenting, "She's all I have as far as family anymore." Their separation is the subject of the album's third track, "Darkness and Cold". It also inspired the album's sixth track, "She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger". Berman also attributed his return to music as a necessity for an income in order to pay down the over $100,000 of debt he amassed in credit card debt and loans, which he said was always over his head and "draining to worry about."

In Nashville, Berman befriended The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, who had recently moved to the city. The two would sometimes collaborate, with Auerbach writing music and Berman writing lyrics, but Berman backed out as Auerbach focused on other projects. However, Auerbach has a songwriting credit on the tenth and final track on Purple Mountains, "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me". Auerbach's side project, The Arcs, performed an early version of the song on their 2016 tour. Berman also co-wrote The Arcs' song "Young", which was released in November 2015 as part of their six-song EP The Arcs vs. The Inventors Vol. I.

Berman first reached out to Canadian musician and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar through e-mail in the fall of 2016. He did not know Bejar personally but was a fan of his music and had read Bejar say positive things about Silver Jews. Bejar had never produced before but told Berman he was willing to try, and the two made loose plans to work together. Berman, who "famously obsessed over his lyrics," went on an "extended eight-month West Coast walkabout". He spent time writing in Joshua Tree, California. His wife Cassie came out for his 50th birthday in January 2017 and they rented a place in Malibu. He then drove to Portland, Oregon, and rented another place for three months in order to write.

From April to July 2017, Bejar and David Carswell set out to produce the album at JC/DC Studios in Vancouver, Canada. The band for the sessions included members of Destroyer. Berman's longtime friend Stephen Malkmus, the frontman of Pavement and a fellow founding member of Silver Jews, also worked in the studio for a few days. Black Mountain drummer Joshua Wells and bass player Colin Cowan also participated in the Vancouver sessions. Berman stayed in Point Roberts, Washington, a US enclave located south of Vancouver. He attempted to write there, but found he could not finish the lyrics. Bejar recommended recording the music first and finishing the lyrics later. Berman felt the music they recorded was "rigid" and ultimately found writing lyrics for the music, which he had never done before, to be impossible. Berman returned home to Nashville to re-write the album and eventually found his previous problems had "solved themselves."