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April 12, 2005
Review: The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
When the release date and tracklist for the new Mountain Goats record were announced, I wasn’t nearly as excited as I should or could have been. Mostly, that was because Darnielle & Co.’s last outing sucked really, really hard, and I was in no way anxious for the new one to also suck, and thus maybe indicate that the head Goat had peaked. Well, since The Sunset Tree is nigh, and advances abound, I can say that those fears could not have been more baseless. I’m almost at a loss for what to say about the new jam besides “It’s really great and you should get it as soon as is humanly possible.” Nonetheless, I will soldier on.
My biggest complaint (out of very, very many) with We Shall All Be Healed was that it was too clever (which I intend as a pejorative). That is to say there was plenty of smart wordplay (it was still John Darnielle, after all), but no emotional meat to it whatsoever. A bon mot is nice enough, but it’s not going to communicate any deep truths about life, love, or whatever else we want out of a good song. That’s why Yogi Berra never made pop songs. If it’s poignancy or emotional intensity you want (and I do), TST has got it in spades. If anything, the Darnielle’s lyrical frankness is almost enough to make you uncomfortable—particularly given the fact that much of the album is themed around domestic abuse.
Darnielle’s voice too is more raw than on previous outings. This only serves to magnify the directness of the lyrics. Normally, his vocal timbre is either a snarktastic TMBG whine (“Anti-Music Song”) or an insistent yelp (“Raja Vocative”, “The Mess Inside”) with little middle ground (I mean all of that in the absolute best possible way—god, I love him). This time around, however, he dons an urgent, painfully effective rasp, as in “Dilaudid.” Seriously, it’s almost downright Oberstian.
Speaking of “Dilaudid,” that track shows off what might be the best thing about the record, namely the addition of cellist, Erik Friedlander, to the Goats posse. Darnielle’s ode to prescription narcotics and passionate self-destruction is also his “Eleanor Rigby,” and not because it’s a minor-key string workout. Listening to that song is a lot like the chestburster scence from Alien, except that the vile thing that’s chewing its way through your body is going to exit through your heart instead of your stomach.
“Love Love Love” would be just as beautifully heart-rending even if it didn’t namecheck Sonny Liston. I thought I was wistful before I heard that one for the first time today…
Somewhere in there, I went from not having much at all to say, to wanting to tell you about every beautiful detail of this record. I won’t do that, but I will say that you really should seek this out. This is the best record Darnielle and his Goat cohorts have made. Seriously. Lo-Fi Goats “purists” will disagree, but they will be wrong. This is it.
Posted by matt at April 12, 2005 11:23 PM
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Comments
Nice post! I share your love of The Sunset Tree (you can read my thoughts here: http://prettyfakes.com/?p=303), but not your disdain for WSABH, which I think is a pretty great album, if a few notches below Tallahassee and other such greats. It's not something we can really argue about, though--you didn't feel any emotion on the album, I felt some emotion on the album (especially "Quito." I mean, holy crap. And the "all you tweakers" line in "PY." Well, I felt it a lot of places. No need for details.) But, to each his etc. I've felt the way you feel about WSABH about other albums--like virtually every Decemberists song I've ever heard *until* the new album, which seems to have some ginuwine heart to it.
Posted by: Professor Fury at April 18, 2005 12:55 PM
i understand what you mean about the decemberists. i think the circumstances of your first time hearing a record have a lot to do with how you're always going to feel about it. 'castaways and cutouts' came out at the right time for me to fall in love with it. if it hadn't, i probably would've been annoyed my colin meloy's voice, and found the lyrical artifice to be totally disingenuous. as it happens, i don't think those things.
Posted by: matt at April 19, 2005 11:04 AM
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