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6. All Eternals Deck by the Mountain Goats
Let me brag real quick for a second. According to my last.fm account, I’ve listened to Mountain Goats songs about 3,000 times on my computer and iPod. If last.fm could’ve counted the spins on my copy of The Sunset Tree in my car over senior year of high school, we’d be talking even more plays. I’m in love with this band and with John Darnielle’s twitter feed, and I sort of unconsciously style my musical sound after tMG.
But you’re here for an album review, not a fanboy’s life story. All Eternals Deck is a fine piece of craftsmanship. It’s got fantastic musical variety: the blisteringly angry rock ‘n roll of “Estate Sale Sign”; the fast-paced, bass-driven anthem that is “Prowl Great Cain” (my number one running song of 2011); even a barbershop quartet undergirding the ominous Lovecraftianism of “High Hawk Season.” There are some tracks that are really pretty magnificent, and that rightly belonged on my Top 25 list when I think about it. “For Charles Bronson” made the cut, sure, but why not “Damn These Vampires?” It’s a magical blend of vampire story, Western, hopelessness, and rage, with a lovely melody to boot! I owe a debt of gratitude to “Never Quite Free” for being my go-to antidepressant about every night before I went to bed in March 2011.
And JD didn’t mail it on lyrics, either. Most powerful are the glimpses into intriguing stories of protagonists desperately clawing for hope (“Damn These Vampires,” “For Charles Bronson”). In some ways, I feel like listening to All Eternals Deck is like being a witness to the raft of the Medusa mixed with just a glimmer of Odyssean survivalism. There’s a horror story theme that hovers over All Eternals Deck and gives the album chilling cohesion. I just wish that that cohesion were more like The Sunset Tree (2005) or Tallahassee (2002), which both tell one overarching story. The various songs on All Eternals Deck are bound together only by their feel, not by their content.
