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| Track list: 1. Southwestern Territory 2. The Legend of Chavo Guerrero 3. Foreign Object 4. Animal Mask 5. Choked Out 6. Heel Turn 2 7. Fire Editorial 8. Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan 9. Werewolf Gimmick 10. Luna 11. Unmasked! 12. The Ballad of Bull Ramos 13. Hair Match Running time: 45 minutes Released: 2015 |
So this is a bit of a first for this project - a listen of something that has been out less than a week (here anyway, and only just). I found out about this whilst I was away, ordered it, and then when I got home it was lying on my doormat. The Mountain Goats equals an instant buy for me based on past output, has done since The Life of the World to Come.
This will also be my first listen to this (save for a track and a half that played whilst I was ripping it from the disc) so will not lead to snap decisions to clear out unless there is something irredeemably bad - and I doubt that very much.
We open with keyboard chords, quiet backing to John Darnielle's distinctive vocals. There is a soft edge to this, and a wandering clarinet (or similar) gives Southwestern Territory a very different tone, almost confessional. It strikes me as an odd match for the subject matter, wrestling as per the cover, but it is oddly effective. Melancholy and lament, even a side of pity drip off the track from start to finish.
We then get more familiar sounds, guitar-lead, drums in evidence, pace higher and a harder set to the voice. My initial reaction is that the opening track is a better crafted song, but The Legend of Chavo Guerrero is more immediately accessible and recognisable as The Mountain Goats. Foreign Object has both echoes of earlier work - something about the percussion harks back to the boombox recordings - and richer textures of the studio-produced content. A horn section dominates here, as much as any of the instrumentation can cover the chorus line of "I'm gonna stab you in the eye with a foreign object" and the overall effect on first attention is weak. It may grow on me but somehow I doubt I'll ever like this song much.
Animal Mask is more pleasant, simple hook and percussion form the base, other instruments floating around, slightly distant creating the space for the song to shine. This again sees Darnielle singing with a soft voice. The choice by The Mountain Goats to do a wrestling-oriented concept album rather bizarrely makes this the second album on the subject that I have, the other being Luke Haines imaginatively titled Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and early '80s. Given I don't like or follow the sport in any way, that's something of a surprise even to me (I cannot recall what made me buy the other). It does allow Darnielle's narrative writing to stand out though as I find myself drawn in to these stories of masked fighters.
Choked Out is angry, violent and punchy and over before I register it. Heel Turn 2 follows on quickly and sounds a little like it could have come from All Eternals Deck in style and tone which I rather appreciate. It then transforms after 3 and a half minutes into a light piano composition... this is an odd transition but I rather like the tune that emerges, sparse and haunting and concluded with a slightly discordant sound. This album may be concentrated in subject matter but its tone is ever-shifting - the next piece up is jazzy, it carries a piano melody and lightly brushed cymbals and I am stumbling to think whom it reminds me of. The tune's simple wandering is arresting and my thoughts are shackled, only released when it ends - I think I will grow to really like this track. I am impressed at how easily the style of each track seems to shift.
That is true once more as we get Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan - here the vocal is almost spoken, menacing strums and drums, left to stand alone. A really dark tone to this - as you might expect from a song about murder. The threat is set off by spine-tingling strings and although it feels like all the parts are in isolation in some way, the whole coalesces well. The menace steps up a level as we get to the driven Werewolf Gimmick - tempo ratcheted up by frenetic percussion and frenzied strumming, repeated notes to the fore in creating the sense of urgency and danger.
I am relieved when the tension breaks and Luna is a softer tune. This carries strong traces of something I know but cannot place... that is really going to annoy me now! I like the song though. Ah, that guitar reminds me of a Gomez track I think, but was that what I meant? Argh, annoying brain failures. This is a really nicely rounded tune, lots of layers. Yes - it must have been what I was thinking of, Buena Vista from Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline; there's a similar kind of jangle to the guitar, even if it is far less dominant in this case, just one of many elements in Luna's composition as opposed to the main theme in the Gomez track.
The rich composition is jettisoned then... no, its my ears playing tricks. Another confessional track in Unmasked, simple voice and guitar seemed at first to be all this was about but there is a nice subtlety to how the piano line snuck in there and took me by surprise. There isn't too much else to this, but its really rather good. What follows is another tonal shift, staccato guitar to the fore, voice harder again... and the song is over before I can formulate any more thoughts enough to transition them to page. Is that tiredness or something else? The placement of The Ballad of Bull Ramos seems odd, a single punchier track amidst 4 quieter softer tracks to close the album.
The final song, Hair Match is almost funereal in pace, very soft in effect. It is almost a lullaby in delivery, quiet and warm, whilst the subject matter is clearly not of that ilk. In truth I am finding it a pretty weak closing track on first exposure, and as it ends I feel that the song's story is only half told - though in fairness that could well be because I missed it rather than because it wasn't there.
And so the album winds up. First impressions are mixed - some very nice tracks here, and I remain impressed by the variety of styles, tempos, compositions exhibited here. One or two of them fell flat initially and the whole thing will need more listens before anything will become a favourite. Overall though, more good than bad and I am happy with the purchase. There was something old-school about the packaging when I received the hard-copy - jewel case with security sticker - and I now look forward to taking this disc to the car to give it a few more plays. It clearly merits more attention, and a chance for things to grow on me.
We open with keyboard chords, quiet backing to John Darnielle's distinctive vocals. There is a soft edge to this, and a wandering clarinet (or similar) gives Southwestern Territory a very different tone, almost confessional. It strikes me as an odd match for the subject matter, wrestling as per the cover, but it is oddly effective. Melancholy and lament, even a side of pity drip off the track from start to finish.
We then get more familiar sounds, guitar-lead, drums in evidence, pace higher and a harder set to the voice. My initial reaction is that the opening track is a better crafted song, but The Legend of Chavo Guerrero is more immediately accessible and recognisable as The Mountain Goats. Foreign Object has both echoes of earlier work - something about the percussion harks back to the boombox recordings - and richer textures of the studio-produced content. A horn section dominates here, as much as any of the instrumentation can cover the chorus line of "I'm gonna stab you in the eye with a foreign object" and the overall effect on first attention is weak. It may grow on me but somehow I doubt I'll ever like this song much.
Animal Mask is more pleasant, simple hook and percussion form the base, other instruments floating around, slightly distant creating the space for the song to shine. This again sees Darnielle singing with a soft voice. The choice by The Mountain Goats to do a wrestling-oriented concept album rather bizarrely makes this the second album on the subject that I have, the other being Luke Haines imaginatively titled Nine and a Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970s and early '80s. Given I don't like or follow the sport in any way, that's something of a surprise even to me (I cannot recall what made me buy the other). It does allow Darnielle's narrative writing to stand out though as I find myself drawn in to these stories of masked fighters.
Choked Out is angry, violent and punchy and over before I register it. Heel Turn 2 follows on quickly and sounds a little like it could have come from All Eternals Deck in style and tone which I rather appreciate. It then transforms after 3 and a half minutes into a light piano composition... this is an odd transition but I rather like the tune that emerges, sparse and haunting and concluded with a slightly discordant sound. This album may be concentrated in subject matter but its tone is ever-shifting - the next piece up is jazzy, it carries a piano melody and lightly brushed cymbals and I am stumbling to think whom it reminds me of. The tune's simple wandering is arresting and my thoughts are shackled, only released when it ends - I think I will grow to really like this track. I am impressed at how easily the style of each track seems to shift.
That is true once more as we get Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan - here the vocal is almost spoken, menacing strums and drums, left to stand alone. A really dark tone to this - as you might expect from a song about murder. The threat is set off by spine-tingling strings and although it feels like all the parts are in isolation in some way, the whole coalesces well. The menace steps up a level as we get to the driven Werewolf Gimmick - tempo ratcheted up by frenetic percussion and frenzied strumming, repeated notes to the fore in creating the sense of urgency and danger.
I am relieved when the tension breaks and Luna is a softer tune. This carries strong traces of something I know but cannot place... that is really going to annoy me now! I like the song though. Ah, that guitar reminds me of a Gomez track I think, but was that what I meant? Argh, annoying brain failures. This is a really nicely rounded tune, lots of layers. Yes - it must have been what I was thinking of, Buena Vista from Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline; there's a similar kind of jangle to the guitar, even if it is far less dominant in this case, just one of many elements in Luna's composition as opposed to the main theme in the Gomez track.
The rich composition is jettisoned then... no, its my ears playing tricks. Another confessional track in Unmasked, simple voice and guitar seemed at first to be all this was about but there is a nice subtlety to how the piano line snuck in there and took me by surprise. There isn't too much else to this, but its really rather good. What follows is another tonal shift, staccato guitar to the fore, voice harder again... and the song is over before I can formulate any more thoughts enough to transition them to page. Is that tiredness or something else? The placement of The Ballad of Bull Ramos seems odd, a single punchier track amidst 4 quieter softer tracks to close the album.
The final song, Hair Match is almost funereal in pace, very soft in effect. It is almost a lullaby in delivery, quiet and warm, whilst the subject matter is clearly not of that ilk. In truth I am finding it a pretty weak closing track on first exposure, and as it ends I feel that the song's story is only half told - though in fairness that could well be because I missed it rather than because it wasn't there.
And so the album winds up. First impressions are mixed - some very nice tracks here, and I remain impressed by the variety of styles, tempos, compositions exhibited here. One or two of them fell flat initially and the whole thing will need more listens before anything will become a favourite. Overall though, more good than bad and I am happy with the purchase. There was something old-school about the packaging when I received the hard-copy - jewel case with security sticker - and I now look forward to taking this disc to the car to give it a few more plays. It clearly merits more attention, and a chance for things to grow on me.
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