The Mountain Goats – The Life of the World to Come
4AD
Words: James Passarelli
Pre-Tallahassee Mountain Goats music is all about what you can’t hear – the delightful buzz and fuzz created by the lowest of lo-fi recording equipment prevents intake of any subtle audio intricacies. Since bassist Peter Hughes and drummer Jon Wurster joined in on frontman John Darnielle’s fun, their music’s focus has been just the opposite. Its crystalline production allows listeners to hear each component, each instrument, whether soft acoustic guitar screeches or sprinkled cymbals. It’s an interesting progression across the production spectrum – from a muffled compression of sound to a meticulous instrumental distinction. And The Life of the World to Come is their most finely produced album yet.
In the midst of Darnielle’s dramatic transformation, one aspect threads together his entire discography: his constant validation as the most prolific modern lyricist. Loosely basing the album after one of his favorite books (the Bible) Darnielle tries his hand at what can be considered the closest he has come to a concept album. In truth, the only aspect of the album that even hints at the word “concept” is the fact that each track is named after a bible verse. And if it were anyone else, we might mistake the title theme for a cheap gimmick. But the Goats avoid any such accusations because the album doesn’t rely on the concept, if there is any concept at all. Sure, Darnielle’s tagline for the album was “Twelve hard lessons the bible taught me, kind of”, but not every song was inspired by the bible. In some ways, he’s writing his own passages.
“He has fixed his sign in the sky,” the chorus goes in the frantic “Psalms 40:2”, “He has raised me from the pit and set me high.” Look closely, and you’ll see a little bit of the actual verse here. But Darnielle forms it to fit his own purposes, using it here in the context of a debauched road trip. Of course, JD hasn’t abandoned his love of animal metaphors: “I have no fear of anyone, I’m dumb and wild and free/I am a flightless bird and there’ll be no more after me.” That one’s from the somber “Deuteronomy 2:10”, and believe me when I say there’s more of that “cheerful desolation” (as Colbert deemed it in a recent interview) where that came from.
If grave poetic imagery suffused all his writing, however, you could hardly separate Darnielle from the next earnest poet. It’s his simultaneously infectious emotion and subtle wit that will drag you in – like on the previously mentioned “Psalms.” “Head down toward Kansas, we will get there when we get there, don’t you worry,” he sings with a strained voice and a distorted facial expression somewhere between a smile and a grimace. “Feel bad about the things we do along the way (but not really that bad).” In the album’s opener “I Samuel 15:23” another first-person narrative, he recounts, “I sold self-help tapes/Go down to the netherworld, plant grapes.” The typical Mountain Goats words-music tension is as present as ever here, grim lyrics mismatched with jaunty melodies and sometimes the other way around.
Dig through the Mountain Goats’ extensive portfolio, and you’ll find better songs and better albums. Hell, you’ll find better compilations. But at what point does an artist escape the inevitable comparisons to his previous work, and when will the world begin to appreciate his latest album as this moment’s most delightful creation? Probably never. But John Darnielle and his goats are happy to self-consciously play in the enormous shadow of their own past recordings.
You can get your copy of the record here.
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