The Mountain Goats are one of those bands I got into during my undergrad days in college while dating an indie rock girl. She would play The Sunset Tree and all of our film friends would sing along (and clearly I had no idea what was going on) so when that happens it can be hard because you mostly associate the band with a particular time in your life (and let's face it, you're a little late discovering a band around the point of their 14th album) but as time went on I continued to enjoy The Mountain Goats and explore older material on my own. I let the release of Get Lonely sort of pass me by but then in 2008 was the release of Heretic Pride and I was right there. This is a heartfelt album full of geeky references to authors H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer (creator of Dr. Fu Manchu) and several mythical beasts including lake monsters, swamp creatures, and Halloween's Michael Myers. There's also a song in tribute to the moon. How can you not love that? I think this is a really fun album, that's well produced and I understand the desire for something much more low-fi, but that time has come and gone for this band and I think it's good that John Darnielle can stay true to his sound without feeling he must cling to a certain recording quality. The flow of this album is really solid and of course the album must be listened to over and over to really get the full experience of Darnielle's narrative. Its definitely a positive tribute to The Mountain Goats' well of creativity to still be able to put out interesting and solid work after 16 (now 17 with 2009's The Life of The World To Come, though that is a different album for a different day). Favorite Tracks: Sax Rohmer #1, San Bernardino, Heretic Pride, So Desperate, Tianchi Lake, and Michael Myers Resplendent
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Album a Day: The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
The Mountain Goats are one of those bands I got into during my undergrad days in college while dating an indie rock girl. She would play The Sunset Tree and all of our film friends would sing along (and clearly I had no idea what was going on) so when that happens it can be hard because you mostly associate the band with a particular time in your life (and let's face it, you're a little late discovering a band around the point of their 14th album) but as time went on I continued to enjoy The Mountain Goats and explore older material on my own. I let the release of Get Lonely sort of pass me by but then in 2008 was the release of Heretic Pride and I was right there. This is a heartfelt album full of geeky references to authors H.P. Lovecraft and Sax Rohmer (creator of Dr. Fu Manchu) and several mythical beasts including lake monsters, swamp creatures, and Halloween's Michael Myers. There's also a song in tribute to the moon. How can you not love that? I think this is a really fun album, that's well produced and I understand the desire for something much more low-fi, but that time has come and gone for this band and I think it's good that John Darnielle can stay true to his sound without feeling he must cling to a certain recording quality. The flow of this album is really solid and of course the album must be listened to over and over to really get the full experience of Darnielle's narrative. Its definitely a positive tribute to The Mountain Goats' well of creativity to still be able to put out interesting and solid work after 16 (now 17 with 2009's The Life of The World To Come, though that is a different album for a different day). Favorite Tracks: Sax Rohmer #1, San Bernardino, Heretic Pride, So Desperate, Tianchi Lake, and Michael Myers Resplendent
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment