The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck (03/05/2011)
The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
Just as you think lyrical mastermind John Darnielle has gotten all the music making out of his 44 year old system for the moment, he hits you with another new release. So prolific are the song writing skills of The Mountain Goats that All Eternals Deck marks the thirteenth studio album release in seventeen years. Indeed, the eighteen month wait since the last album, biblical The Life of the World to Come, was an uncharacteristically long one due to his commitments with one of his other musical projects, The Extra Lens.
Since their inception, The Mountain Goats have developed a large cult following which, on the whole, is cruelly unforgiving in critiquing the various new directions that Darnielle has taken his band. Many diehards treat the evolutions in The Mountain Goats' sound with a degree of animosity, remembering his ditching of the favoured and cosy lo-fi recordings of old in favour of the full band acoustics first introduced with 2002's Tallahassee.
All Eternals Deck represents another, albeit minor, evolution in the band's sound, with a shift to the Merge Records label and a much more united and developed sound than the previous two efforts with the same three man line-up of Darnielle, perpetual bassist Peter Hughes, and drummer Jon Wurster, which had seemed a little disjointed at times.
With this album, heavy metal fan Darnielle enlisted the support of Morbid Angel guitarist-producer Erik Rutan, whose influence can be heard on four songs, including the darkly brilliant The Autopsy Garland, which depicts the rough handling of the young eponymous Wizard of Oz star with heavy bass and cracking drum beats as well as featuring Darnielle's creepily quiet vocals, repeatedly warning that "you don't wanna see these guys without their masks on".
Unlike other Mountain Goats albums though, this one does not have a discernable central theme and branches out from eerie ballads, as well as more uplifting ballads like Never Quite Free, to Mountain Goats trademark guitar driven raw energy fests like Estate Sale Sign, which is easily the best 3 minutes on the album.
Other highlights include the slow, sorrowful Age of Kings which has a resounding string section complimenting the almost whispering vocals, the barbershop quartet like High Hawk Season and the slow moving album closer Liza Forever Minnelli, which isn't revered by me for its musical ingenuity, but more as it features Darnielle threatening to kill somebody for singing The Eagles Hotel California.
All Eternals Deck's quintessential song is undoubtedly Twilight-hating first track Damn These Vampires, which opens the album on a positive note whilst setting the tone for best Mountain Goats release since The Sunset Tree.
The bi-annual event of a new Mountain Goats album returns once again and John Darnielle comes up with one of his best efforts in recent years.
Oscar Coleman
Since their inception, The Mountain Goats have developed a large cult following which, on the whole, is cruelly unforgiving in critiquing the various new directions that Darnielle has taken his band. Many diehards treat the evolutions in The Mountain Goats' sound with a degree of animosity, remembering his ditching of the favoured and cosy lo-fi recordings of old in favour of the full band acoustics first introduced with 2002's Tallahassee.
All Eternals Deck represents another, albeit minor, evolution in the band's sound, with a shift to the Merge Records label and a much more united and developed sound than the previous two efforts with the same three man line-up of Darnielle, perpetual bassist Peter Hughes, and drummer Jon Wurster, which had seemed a little disjointed at times.
With this album, heavy metal fan Darnielle enlisted the support of Morbid Angel guitarist-producer Erik Rutan, whose influence can be heard on four songs, including the darkly brilliant The Autopsy Garland, which depicts the rough handling of the young eponymous Wizard of Oz star with heavy bass and cracking drum beats as well as featuring Darnielle's creepily quiet vocals, repeatedly warning that "you don't wanna see these guys without their masks on".
Unlike other Mountain Goats albums though, this one does not have a discernable central theme and branches out from eerie ballads, as well as more uplifting ballads like Never Quite Free, to Mountain Goats trademark guitar driven raw energy fests like Estate Sale Sign, which is easily the best 3 minutes on the album.
Other highlights include the slow, sorrowful Age of Kings which has a resounding string section complimenting the almost whispering vocals, the barbershop quartet like High Hawk Season and the slow moving album closer Liza Forever Minnelli, which isn't revered by me for its musical ingenuity, but more as it features Darnielle threatening to kill somebody for singing The Eagles Hotel California.
All Eternals Deck's quintessential song is undoubtedly Twilight-hating first track Damn These Vampires, which opens the album on a positive note whilst setting the tone for best Mountain Goats release since The Sunset Tree.
The bi-annual event of a new Mountain Goats album returns once again and John Darnielle comes up with one of his best efforts in recent years.
Oscar Coleman