Lakeland Mirror

Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: www.mountain-goats.com

John Darnielle is, without a doubt, an expert lyricist, putting into his music what famous novelists put into their tireless naming of places and characters, a deeper theme and inner workings that are not to be scoffed at. He proves his brilliance yet again with his sixteenth album, and sings to a deeper level with these twelve new tracks.

Of course, by Darnielle I mean the Mountain Goats. No offense to his other members, but it is really Darnielle that creates the magic here. He says that this album is "twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of." Each track is named after a Bible verse, verses which I refused to look up until I had heard the album through several times. In this way, the verses work to add another level to songs that already bear great depth and brilliance.

It's important to note that Darnielle himself isn't religious - or rather, he is incredibly religious, but only in his own unique way. He has alluded to the Bible many times in past albums, and this thorough exploration of the book seems to show Darnielle's fascination with Christianity. One doesn't get the vibe that this album was meant to be very religious in nature; at least, not in the conventional sense. It is instead scoffing, somewhat ironically religious.

For sound, Darnielle relies on mostly bare tracks, with two or three key instruments at most which are entirely capable of delivering his story.

What makes these songs so dazzling is Darnielle's refusal to create anything but awfully human characters. Much like "Get Lonely," his last album, he tells tales here that are heartbreaking and he builds characters that are very real.

For example, one track, "Matthew 25:21," tells the story of a man running to the bedside of someone dying of cancer. The lyrics and feeling of the track echo one Sufjan Stevens song called "Casimir Pulaski Day."

The Darnielle song goes like this: "And then came to your bedside / and as it turns out / I'm not ready / and as though / you were speaking through a thick haze / you said hello to me…" Both songs are heart-wrenching, truthful accounts of death by cancer, and Darnielle speaks to the emotional turmoil of witnessing such a death. "And I am airplane tumbling wing over wing / tried to listen to my instruments / they don't say anything / people screaming when the engines quit / I hope we're all in crash position when we hit…"

Continued...

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