EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/6SZ2z.jpg)
John Being John: Solid, but not Outstanding as a Whole
I have now listened through this album about five times and there are many things to take note and mention.
First off, if you are just getting into The Mountain Goats or new to them, this album might not be for you. It is not the most user-friendly, even though it does wield a few nice poppy tunes. I do not recommend starting here.
For tMG veterans, here is what I have:
Lyrically, this album is purely John. After listening to enough Mountain Goats songs from their vast catalog you pick up on those lines and stylistic approaches that tell you that this is in fact a John Darnielle song, and with this album those lines are definitely there in droves:
“Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive...and stay alive, just stay alive.”
“The loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you’re never going to see again.”
“Live like an outlaw clutching gold coins in his claw.”
“Every dream’s a good dream, even awful dreams are good dreams, if you’re doing it right.”
Musically the album is masterfully mixed and engineered, and while there are elements that echo with the last 6 years of tMG albums, John and the crew are heading into a more ambitious state with this group of tunes. Whether it be the horn section (Cry for Judas, White Cedar, Transcendental Youth), use of vocal effects (Until I Am Whole), the expansion of piano/drum stylings (Lakeside View Apartment Suite), or electronic background drones (Night Light), the boys are continuing to change and evolve.
As a whole album, I will admit to being tad disappointed, especially after my excitement on hearing the first single “Cry for Judas” when it was first released awhile back. There is a lack of flow to the album. While lyrically the album deals with issues in and around the mental health system, musically it does not flow as a complete piece. There are points where the skip from one song to another is just a bit too jarring and strange to connect everything together in such a way as I believe they are trying to do. Many of the songs sound as if they could have come off of other releases, even though those releases are quite different:
Until I am Whole >> Get Lonely
Lakeside View Apartment Suite >> Satanic Messiah
Harlem Roulette >> All Eternal’s Deck
All that being said, this is a must have for all fans of tMG. Different and sometimes strange, a mix of styles and changes, a couple songs are among some of my new favorite tunes. Overall I place this album at a 4 star (3.7 or so if I could...) and I will say that I like it better than “The Life and the World to Come,” but not nearly as great to me as the last effort “All Eternal’s Deck.” To sum it all up I think that this album is just a bit too ambitious for its own good.
Song that work:
Harlem Roulette (Amazing song, great lyrics and musical drive.)
Cry for Judas (New instrumentation, great drive.)
The Diaz Brothers (Truly sounds like a tMG song, solid.)
Songs that I just think didn’t work:
Lakeside View Apartment Suite (Just overall uninteresting and repetitious.)
White Cedar (Just do to weird arrangement.)
Counterfeit Florida Plates (Again, weird mix of guitar and drum beat that just did seem to flow well enough.)
Quote from the Booklet:
In the darkness she inhabited, only that which shows with its own light could be seen. -Magdalena Tulli
First Single:
Cry for Judas
. What genre is this?
