By Alex Felsinger
"When the house goes up in flames, nobody emerges triumphantly from it," sings Mountain Goats mainstay and lyricist John Darnielle, with thundering drums, piano, and cello at his side on the final song of Heretic Pride (4AD). But after their last album, Get Lonely (4AD, 2006), a recording filled with nothing but morose musings on the state of his own life, the Mountain Goats' floorboards were beginning to warp from the fire building in the basement.
While The Sunset Tree (4AD, 2005) brought mainstream appeal, it too was autobiographical, along with the majority of the preceding album, We Shall All be Healed (4AD, 2004). Darnielle, who constructed a fan base on his vibrantly constructed lyrics telling stories of true-to-life fictional characters, began to lose his magic when the focus of his songwriting for the first time became his own life.
But with Heretic Pride, Darnielle maneuvered his way out of his burning building, and is back - triumphantly, even - to creating the types of characters fans have come to know and love. Lyrically, the full-length takes bits and pieces from the group's past by revisiting themes. In liner notes, he says the track "So Desperate" is "a love song about people who are together when they probably shouldn't be" - a description that could match any number of Mountain Goats songs from the past (most notably "No Children," but also any of the "Alpha" song series that spanned 11 years and various albums).
In 2006, Darnielle treated fans to a free solo acoustic set at Amoeba Music in San Francisco. Sandwiched among mellow tracks from Get Lonely, Darnielle performed a lively version of "Golden Boy" (an older, self-described "rather stupid song" about heaven being filled with peanuts). After the number, Darnielle said, "I remember the moment when I stopped writing songs of that nature." He meant tunes that could make people laugh - presumably including tracks like his historical love song to the Anglo Saxons and the "Anti-Music Song," in which he complains about bands that he hates.
With Heretic Pride, he has taken a small step back into silliness. One tune tells the story of a lake monster in China, and there's another about an imaginary cult, plus one song that directly lifts a line - and briefly, the melody - from the Cheers theme. But these numbers do not come off as over-the-top or stupid in the slightest, at least not in the same way his similarly-themed older songs did. While Darnielle's high fidelity efforts in the last four years have been consistently solemn, his lo-fi days were noticeably less. Heretic Pride joins the best that Darnielle has to offer by toning down the misery-rhetoric while also continuing the upward curve of production quality found in The Sunset Tree and Get Lonely. The disc will, without a doubt, excite long-time and newer fans alike.
The Mountain Goats will perform three shows as part of the Noise Pop festival:
With Jeffery Lewis & the Jitters, OKAY, and Aim Low Kid
Friday, Feb. 29, 7 p.m., sold out
Bimbo's 365 Club
1025 Columbus, SF
(415) 474-0365
With David Dondero, Tulsa, and Conspiracy of Venus
Saturday, March 1, 8:30 p.m., sold out
The Independent
628 Divisidero, SF
(415) 771-1421
With So Many Dynamos, Caves, and D.W. Holidays
Sunday, March 2, noon, sold out (though some tickets are available at the door)
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
