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The Mountain Goats John Darnielle is either a lyrical genius or a huge irritant depending on your viewpoint. Personally, I've never got it myself. Their music inspires nothing in me other than a feeling of 'meh'. His voice is that kind of whiney American somewhere between Stipe, the bloke from Neutral Milk Hotel and oh I dunno a Hootie and the Blowfish or something. The music is pleasantly simple acoustic pop/rock that doesn't offend nor inspire but to be honest I can't get past the vocal to tell you what this is like. Fans of his previous stuff will probably find a lot to enjoy in this but no harm done. Another Mountain Goats album comes out, some will like it, some won't and millions won't give a toss.
* The Mountain Goats' (4AD/Merge) new album is called 'All Eternals Deck,'. "The songs cluster around themes of
hidden things and the dread that hidden things inspire," says singer/songwriter John Darnielle, "but also the excitement,
the attraction, the magnetic draw that scary unknown hidden things exert."
* The title refers to an apocryphal tarot deck, though Darnielle explains that the album's fascination with the occult
originates in having run across the word "occult" in a textbook in his nursing-student days. "'Occult' just means 'hidden' or
'not immediately obvious' in medical terminology. There was a nursing directive to be aware of 'occult blood.' I thought it
was the greatest thing I'd ever heard," he says.
* Darnielle started recording songs while during his psych-nurse days in California. "I had been writing poetry pretty
much all my life," he remembers. "At some point in Norwalk I bought a guitar from this really cool old music store in a
strip mall, and I started teaching myself to play."
*Soon Darnielle was playing live, touring with bassist Rachel Ware and then with multi-instrumentalist Peter Hughes. In
2001 they became a full-time studio-and-road-show duo, releasing four albums together: 'Tallahassee,' 'We Shall All Be
Healed,' 'The Sunset Tree,' and 'Get Lonely.' Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster joined in 2007, and the collaboration
clicked perfectly.
* The band toured the U.S., England, Australia, and New Zealand extensively, recording a new studio album called 'The
Life of the World to Come' in 2009 that prompted GQ to remark: "Darnielle's not just one of the greatest songwriters
working today--he's probably one of the greatest working writers." The album also earned a 'Best New Music' nod from
Pitchfork.
* In 2010, the band signed to Merge Records, headquartered within walking distance of Darnielle's Durham, NC home.
The band approached recording sessions for 'All Eternals Deck' as commando raids on multiple studios with several
producers: four songs at North Carolina's Fidelitorium with John Congleton; one at Q Division in Boston with longtime
soundman Brandon Eggleston; four at Brooklyn's Mission Sound with Scott Solter; and four at Mana Recording Studios
in Florida, with Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal helmsman Erik Rutan.
1. Damn These Vampires 2. Birth Of Serpents 3. Estate Sale Sign 4. Age Of Kings 5. The Autopsy Garland
6. Beautiful Gas Mask 7. High Hawk Season 8. Prowl Great Cain 9. Soudoire Valley Song 10. Outer Scorpion
Squadron 11. For Charles Bronson 12. Never Quite Free 13. Liza Forever Minnelli
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