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| Track List: 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. Sourdoire Valley Song 10. Outer Scorpion Squadron 11. For Charles Bronson 12. Never Quite Free 13. Liza Forever Minnelli Running time: 42 minutes Released: 2011 |
Now for the first of two Mountain Goats albums in a row. AED blew me away when it came out, to the point that I made the effort to treck down to London by train, on a week-night, to see them gig. Recent plays in the car have me thinking that time and reflection have been less kind to it than some of John Darnielle's work, however. Time to test that theory.
Certainly Damn These Vampires sounds muted now, detached and less immediately impacting. It is a decent track still but my initial impression of the song was of a bigger hit to open the album. I suspect that it is my memory that is at fault, or perhaps having the song explained took away some of the magic.
There is a bit more urgency and raw emotion in Birth of Serpents, but it is not until Estate Sale Sign that I feel the album is really underway. I find I enjoy the anger in the delivery and the minimal arrangement - drums and strangled guitar, high tempo and strongly delivered lines. It, too, sounds more muted now than I remember it from release - but the energy and vitality in the performance carry it through. When melody returns in later tracks there is a warmth to the sound and it feels like the album has woken up.
However it is generally better when the tempo stays higher. Yes the slower melodic pieces are nice, but there is a rawness to The Mountain Goats music and that shines through better on the pacier tracks. I am not talking thrashed out super-fast here, just a good driving pace rather than a slower ballad. The slower tunes expose the minimalist approach to arrangement a bit more, and whilst some of those songs are really good they give the impression they could take more beautification: bows and garlands provided by a deeper instrumentation. High Hawk Season is an interesting half-way house here. A slower song, arrangement is provided by a backing choir rather than more instruments.
Prowl Great Cain was my original favourite, no longer so. I like it a lot, but other tracks have supplanted it. I do love the chorus though - the line "I feel guilty but I can't feel ashamed" has always struck a chord and the whole song hangs together really well. I think my initial favouritism may have something to do with a keyboard line sneaking in, the tempo and the lyrics. The latter two hit you fairly early, and form a strong impression, albeit one that is weaker now that I have given time to some of its album-mates.
I find it really quite astounding what this man can do. Whilst the album does contain some more arranged tunes, the majority of his work is reasonably minimalist, yet leaves a strong impression. Not all of it great (there are songs on albums to come I do not like at all), but most of it very good. His songs feel like songs rather than some insignificant words provided to offset the music, which is often quite raw but no less accomplished for that. There is often a simplicity to the bass and/or rhythm, perhaps just a simple loop, but they are catchy, they are thoughtful and they are effective. I would say that Darnielle is a songwriter first and foremost. I cannot level the same criticisms of forgettable lyrics that I have used in the past here (though to be fair there could be an element of familiarity there too). I doubt I would put all the tracks on a high lyrical pedestal as entire songs, but most of them contain at least one very memorable line. He has, though, the knack of finding a chord, a loop, a hook to go with these songs and produces magic in doing so.
I am particularly fond of Never Quite Free. I could listen to this song over and over and over. It has a power, emotion, openness and a "from the heart" quality that strikes right at mine. The piano is back, and whilst the guitar line on the outro is a little parody of a melancholic line it is the only small fault that I find with the song. For me it is almost as if the album ends there, because even as Liza Forever Minelli plays (I like the song but it is not special) I find myself replaying Never Quite Free in my head. It is ever thus when I listen to All Eternals Deck.
Certainly Damn These Vampires sounds muted now, detached and less immediately impacting. It is a decent track still but my initial impression of the song was of a bigger hit to open the album. I suspect that it is my memory that is at fault, or perhaps having the song explained took away some of the magic.
There is a bit more urgency and raw emotion in Birth of Serpents, but it is not until Estate Sale Sign that I feel the album is really underway. I find I enjoy the anger in the delivery and the minimal arrangement - drums and strangled guitar, high tempo and strongly delivered lines. It, too, sounds more muted now than I remember it from release - but the energy and vitality in the performance carry it through. When melody returns in later tracks there is a warmth to the sound and it feels like the album has woken up.
However it is generally better when the tempo stays higher. Yes the slower melodic pieces are nice, but there is a rawness to The Mountain Goats music and that shines through better on the pacier tracks. I am not talking thrashed out super-fast here, just a good driving pace rather than a slower ballad. The slower tunes expose the minimalist approach to arrangement a bit more, and whilst some of those songs are really good they give the impression they could take more beautification: bows and garlands provided by a deeper instrumentation. High Hawk Season is an interesting half-way house here. A slower song, arrangement is provided by a backing choir rather than more instruments.
Prowl Great Cain was my original favourite, no longer so. I like it a lot, but other tracks have supplanted it. I do love the chorus though - the line "I feel guilty but I can't feel ashamed" has always struck a chord and the whole song hangs together really well. I think my initial favouritism may have something to do with a keyboard line sneaking in, the tempo and the lyrics. The latter two hit you fairly early, and form a strong impression, albeit one that is weaker now that I have given time to some of its album-mates.
I find it really quite astounding what this man can do. Whilst the album does contain some more arranged tunes, the majority of his work is reasonably minimalist, yet leaves a strong impression. Not all of it great (there are songs on albums to come I do not like at all), but most of it very good. His songs feel like songs rather than some insignificant words provided to offset the music, which is often quite raw but no less accomplished for that. There is often a simplicity to the bass and/or rhythm, perhaps just a simple loop, but they are catchy, they are thoughtful and they are effective. I would say that Darnielle is a songwriter first and foremost. I cannot level the same criticisms of forgettable lyrics that I have used in the past here (though to be fair there could be an element of familiarity there too). I doubt I would put all the tracks on a high lyrical pedestal as entire songs, but most of them contain at least one very memorable line. He has, though, the knack of finding a chord, a loop, a hook to go with these songs and produces magic in doing so.
I am particularly fond of Never Quite Free. I could listen to this song over and over and over. It has a power, emotion, openness and a "from the heart" quality that strikes right at mine. The piano is back, and whilst the guitar line on the outro is a little parody of a melancholic line it is the only small fault that I find with the song. For me it is almost as if the album ends there, because even as Liza Forever Minelli plays (I like the song but it is not special) I find myself replaying Never Quite Free in my head. It is ever thus when I listen to All Eternals Deck.
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