Personal, Passionate Poetry
A tender fragility of confident guitar chords and dancing vocals leaks from The Mountain Goats fresh and innovative. Loneliness isn't the first thing that hits you on listening to the band's 10th album; it's the ease with which the album affects you with its precious lyrics. "Some days I think I'd feel better if I tried harder/ Most days I know it's not true", sighs 'Wild Sage', its tune is a lilting stream of piano and guitar notes, but the minute you let the lyrics in they grip you and fill you with the ebbing melancholy and retrospective charm of the piece.
"I look down at my hands like they were mirrors", sings John Darnielle above the throbbing guitar and organic percussion of 'New Monster Avenue', and the value in Darnielle's lyrics does seem to be in the way they effortlessly reflect real life into something crystal sharp and perfectly formed.
'Half Dead' brims with ebuillent chords and resounding guitars, filling your heart with the joy that 'Get Lonely' then immediately destroys with the expansive hollow created by aching strings and stream of consciousness vocals that seem to write themselves like a diary entry scratched into your ears. 'Maybe Sprout Wings' blisters with dark desolation like a fairy tale gone wrong, through the purity of its vocals and delicate imagery, "A bad dream woke me in my sleep and I woke up sweating".
A wild country lament breezes through the peaks and troughs of passionate, 'In Hidden Places', dark and reckless in its instrumental longing. 'Woke Up New' bubbles with a bright rush of light cello notes, in contrast to the resolute, theatric defiance in 'If You See The Light's lyrics, "When the villagers come to my door I will hide underneath and table in the dining room", brash brass and pulsing percussion.
The Mountain Goats clearly move from strength to strength with another album of subtle poetry, dazzling with wit and introspective intelligence even through the deepest moments of doubt and melancholy. 'Get Lonely' will not wake you up bright eyed and bushy tailed on a Monday morning, but it's a refreshing listen that will draw you into its deeply personal stories.