Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.
The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (Merge, 3/29/11)
The Mountain Goats: “Damn These Vampires”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Mountain-Goats-Damn-These-Vampires.mp3|titles=The Mountain Goats: Damn These Vampires]An old but proven adage is to write what you know. Though the maxim applies aptly to writers and poets, it doesn’t always play out so well for music. But when the The Mountain Goats surfaced in 2001, it decided to go with what it knew, and immediately made a name for itself as a masterful band of literary troubadours.
Through the years, it continued the trend, crafting such notable releases as Tallahassee in 2001, The Sunset Tree in 2005, and Life of the World to Come in 2009, among others. The trio of John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, and Jon Wurster (in addition to numerous guest appearances) arms itself with poignant and bookish lyrics, concrete imagery, and gut-wrenching pathos, all backed by a swath of indie-folk versatility and integrity. The band has established itself as an architect of musical design that is both sparse and minimalist, as well as explosive and frenetic. And more often than not, Darnielle and his cohorts pull it off without ever being contrived or hackneyed.
Now, 10 years after its inception, The Mountain Goats has returned with All Eternals Deck, its first effort on Merge Records, a label to which it signed last year. With the pendulum swinging back and forth between piano-driven, heartfelt reflections like “Outer Scorpion Squadron,” to frenzied all-or-nothing offerings like “Estate Sale Sign,” The Mountain Goats yet again sounds completely at home, no matter which musical style it’s lending its talents to. Darnielle continues to showcase his signature boyish-yet-erudite vocals, and the band has never sounded so sure of itself or seemed so comfortable in its temperament.
Darnielle’s lyrics are drenched in poetry, short fiction, and personal narrative, tugging at a number of emotions on every song. From track to track, he is able to pull moments from everyday occurrences, heightening them to the point of catharsis with elevated language and high-strung sentiments. There is something heartbreaking in songs like “The Age of Kings,” in which Darnielle lingers over the pleasure of companionship and the desperation of it stealing away. There is something utterly terrifying occurring in the cryptic “The Autopsy Garland” when Darnielle laments, “You don’t want to see these guys without their masks on / or their gloves.” A lonesome hopefulness embeds itself within the fantastic “Beautiful Gas Mask.” And the acceptance of guilt present on the “Prowl Great Cain” makes you feel your own blood course through your veins.
But the array of emotions that The Mountain Goats offers isn’t only through its words; it’s through the music as well. All Eternals Deck — featuring heart-strumming acoustics and electronics, tinkering piano keys, subdued yet violent drumming, various keyboard ornamentation, and well-read, emotionally torn lyrics — once again shows the band playing to its strengths. It’s incredible how the band is able to construct quality recording after recording without ever straying too far from its proven formula. But, just as in poetry or prose, writing what you know is often what yields the best results. And thankfully for us, The Mountain Goats is aware of that.
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