threevue

release date: October 6, 2009

I’ll be straight up with you, right here, right now: the only thing wrong with this album is that there are so many good Mountain Goats albums out there already. This is the seventeenth Mountain Goats album. I’ve had my soul churned by the scathing, insightful voice of singer John Darnielle so many times before that it’s hard for me to jump into this album blindly. For example: I had open-heart surgery in 2007, and for the first month afterwards every time I tried to get out of bed, the chorus of “This Year” (from 2005′s The Sunset Tree) would play through my head incessantly; it’s a harrowing experience to hum “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me” repeatedly to yourself like that. Sorry, but as good as The Life of the World to Come is, I don’t plan on having an experience like that with this album.

For those of you that don’t know, The Mountain Goats is really just one guy and some friends that record something between conventional singer/songwriter songs and indie rock. It’s hard to classify, but there’s one universal element to the music – Darnielle’s urgently bleating voice, complemented by some truly incredible wordcraft. The past couple Mountain Goats albums have been a little too restrained, but The Life of the World to Come has a few hot-burners, so it’s all g.

If you’ve never heard The Mountain Goats, I recommend The Sunset Tree. If you’re already a fan, you won’t be disappointed with this one.