THE MOUNTAIN GOATS – ALL ETERNALS DECK
- Author:
- Imran Shahid
- Posted:
- Monday, 6 February 2012
All Eternals Deck is the 13th studio album by John Darnielle a.k.a. the Mountain Goats and it’s a welcome record of personal and thought provoking folk-pop. From humble beginnings releasing home made recordings, the world should be grateful that Darnielle opted for more polished studio performances and settled on incumbent collaborators bassist Peter Hughes and drummer Jon Wurster. The album opener Damn These Vampires is a soft and beautiful slow burner and one can’t help but be immediately drawn to the honesty of Darnielle’s lyricism when he sings “God damn these vampires for what they’ve done to me” when he sings of a dilapidated life. Combined with the sombre piano, earthy acoustic guitars and woody drums Darnielle’s vocals are poetic and soulful and not blunted by the obtuseness of his vocal timbre. Darnielle doesn’t have the most dynamic voice but he manages to bypass that limitation with poetic lyricism and genuinely emotive vocal performances. Perhaps the rockier Estate Sale Sign or Prowl Great Cain with their urgent and driving instrumentation are most appropriately suited for his vocal range, yet even on mellower numbers such as Age Of Kings and Outer Scorpion Squadron, Darnielle’s vocals are so un-apolagetically poetic and honest that the listener is endeared to his singing style. All Eternals Deck is a fulfilling listen and after 13 albums the Mountain Goats don’t seem to be running out of things to say.
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Story posted on Monday, 6 February 2012, filed under CD Reviews. Follow responses via the RSS feed.
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