Word: mountainous
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...This song is the first love song I wrote about my wife, after I had actually seen her,” murmured John Darnielle as he began the Mountain Goats’ set at last Thursday night’s show. I settled into my pastel-green cushioned seat in Remis Auditorium at the Boston MFA, comforted by the anticipation of an untainted love-song, albeit concerned: what did he write about her before they...
...Ever since his first releases in the early ’90s, fans have admired the Mountain Goats for the sincerity that each song exudes, through lone permanent member Darnielle’s incisively concrete, yet erudite lyrics. This effect is multiplied by the raw sound of his unmediated recording techniques. As late as 2002’s “All Hail West Texas,” Darnielle recorded his albums on a boom box, and some of his early works remain available exclusively on audiocassette...
During the Mountain Goats’ performance, it became increasingly clear that the set-list had been carefully crafted, thematically divided between two representations of love. When a fan shouted out a request to hear “Cubs in Five,” the whimsical opening track of the Mountain Goats’ 1995 release, “Nine Black Poppies,” Darnielle replied, with characteristically brusque decision, “I am not going to play it. I feel I would be dishonest to lead you on any longer about that...
...this changed, however, in The Mountain Goats’ two latest albums, “We Shall All Be Healed” and “The Sunset Tree.” Studio-recorded (the latter in coordination with musician John Vanderslice) with a more refined sound and wider instrumentation, these albums have been received with reservations by fans accustomed to the raw truthfulness of previous work. In addition, both albums abandon the traditional song-series and their fictional narratives, telling instead an autobiographical account of Darnielle’s childhood. Writing closer to home, Darnielle drops the overbearing hysterics...
...Nevertheless, The Mountain Goats remain The Mountain Goats. Darnielle’s lyrics retain their intellectual density and associative clarity. Moving into more “sincere” subject matter, he reserves a license to artifice by entering an “insincere” medium; hence the overproduced sound and elaborate instrumentation...