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.

The first time or two that I listened to it, I was like, “Not bad! I kind of like his other stuff more, but there are a few tracks that I’m totally digging here.”

But then I listen to it again, and I’m like, “Whoa. This is really good.”

Come to think of it, this might be my initial reaction to all Mountain Goats albums (see Heretic Pride, Tallahassee). It could take several listens, but eventually I succumb to loving them all devotedly

Anyway, you can stream it here. As I said, it’s really good.

The Boys Are Back in Town / Ignition (Remix) - The Mountain Goats (Thin Lizzie / R. Kelly cover) (via petrellica)

I just can’t get enough of this.

So it occurred to me that I will probably need to buy a cassette player when I get back to America in order to listen to All Survivors Pack. I’m pretty sure I don’t own one anymore. But then it occurred to me that if I’m buying a cassette player, I might as well get one that can record cassettes too, right? That was instead of using GarageBand filters to make my music sound more lo-fi and cover up my poor guitar playing, I can just go all 90s and record straight to tape. Look, I know there’s already one John Darnielle in this world, but I’m just saying, what if something happens to him? Someone has to be ready to fill that void, and why can’t that person be me?

petrellica:

1. Damn These Vampires
2. Birth of Serpents
3. Estate Sale Sign
4. Age of Kings
5. The Autopsy Garland
6. Beautiful Gas Mask
7. High Hawk Season
8. Prowl Great Cain
9. Sourdoire Valley Song
10. Outer Scorpion Squadron
11. For Charles Bronson
12. Never Quite Free
13. Liza Forever Minnelli 

Hey, I’ve already heard “For Charles Bronson”! Cool!

This album sounds awesome.

“The Day the Aliens Came” by The Mountain Goats. Come, Come to the Sunset Tree.

“Hey, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Vanderslice! Uh, this is a new song I’m really excited about and, uh, and so since I wrote it on my old Cort guitar instead of the new one, I—I wanna play it on that, just for purposes of ‘cause I’ve been writing it and so forth. So that’s why it sounds a little beat-up and flat and everything, ‘cause these strings are old and everything, so sorry about that. It’s in A; I think I’m tuned in A. It should be called ‘Hawaiian Feeling,’ but probably can’t be called that. Um, okay. Right. Alright.”

John Darnielle in ACM@UCO last night.

Set list:

• 1 Samuel 15:23
• Old College Try
• Cotton
• Psalm 40:2
• Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?
• Holland
• Woke Up New
• Waving at You
• The Fall of the Star High School Running Back
• Have to Explode
• new song, which he called “For Charles Bronson”
• Your Belgian Things
• Lion’s Teeth
• Dance Music
• This Year
• No Children (encore)
• Great Balls of Fire (encore)