3/25/2005
The Mountain Goats
In a crazy, confusing world of post-punk revivals, nu disco, electronic experimentalists and other trendy-wendy whatever genres, it can be so totally refreshing to hear some music that is straight forwardly uncluttered and brilliant. Such is the case with the utterly thrilling new album from 4AD's The Mountain Goats, The Sunset Tree, which is released in late April.
Here is a band, who for many years consisted of one person (the genius-like Mr. John Darnielle) recording his acoustic guitar led ramblings into a sketchy-ass boombox and calling them albums. Since signing to 4AD several years back, the music of Mr. Darnielle has gotten progressively more glossy and polished, and The Sunset Tree is surely his finest work yet. As per usual, lyrically Darnielle wears his autobiography on his sleeve, and the general theme this time around seems to take a step back from the last Mountain Goats album We Shall All Be Healed, which excellently reminisced about the singer's drug-addled twenty-something years. On The Sunset Tree, he seems to reflect on many of the events of his youth and relate them to his many current exhaustive predicaments, with completely entrancing results. Many Mountain Goats fans love them so much because Darnielle's lyrical and vocal approach are so personal that it often feels like he is singing directly to you about your life. There's something always so essential and completely addictive about this band, and The Sunset Tree is one of the best albums of 2005.
MP3 5.33 MB, 192 kbps, 44 kHz
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