John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats with Heretic Pride
I’m going to make an important distinction: musical talent is different from song writing talent. When I think of musical talent, I think of technical expertise, music theory, and terms like phrygian mode – the kind of food that a music student is fed. John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats does not eat that food. In fact, he doesn’t even go to restaurants that serve that food. (Can I make wild metaphorical claims like that about a person I don’t know? Well, I just did.) Darnielle doesn’t compose, he writes. His music has always been about story telling, and this is what distinguishes him as a song writer.
The latest Mountain Goats album, Heretic Pride, which has been out since February, gives us the next foot forward in Darnielle’s gradually evolving sound. Prior to Tallahassee (2002), he had been recording himself in single-mic-to-living-room-stereo fashion, giving his albums the characteristic lo-fi background hiss. Since Tallahassee, he has been recording in studio, often under the production of John Vanderslice, and with a collection of fellow musicians. Many early supporters have been reluctant to appreciate the studio sound, criticizing Darnielle for abandoning his style, but I must interject and offer compliments.
I think he has been allowing his sound to evolve. As a kid, why did you continue looking at the puffy cumulous clouds even after you saw a dragon? Because you could see new shapes as the wind remolded the sky. Knowing full well that Darnielle is capable of filling my imagination with language, I am willing to go where he wants to lead me, even if it means imagining new shapes, or shifting my focus in another direction.
While I wouldn’t say Heretic Pride is an example of The Mountain Goats at their best (for that, I would point you to Tallahassee), it is nonetheless a great album. Peter Hughes joined Darnielle on the bass, Jon Wurster on the drums, Franklin Bruno on the keys, and Erik Frieldander handled all of the string arrangements. There are even a few whisps of female choir voices in “Marduk T-shirt Men’s Room Incident” and taking background harmony in “New Zion.” Songs like “Sax Rohmer #1,” “San Bernardino,” and “Tianchi Lake” sound stylistically reminiscent of the Tallahassee/Sunset Tree era, and “New Zion” and “Sept 15 1983” explore a quasi-reggae sound that suits the group well. And I simply cannot forget the rocking “Lovecraft in Brooklyn,” which stands out as the only song on the album with an overdriven electric guitar.
But that’s not all John Darnielle has been up to. He wrote a book for the 33 1/3 series, all books of which are themed around influential albums. His album: Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality (be sure to check out the music video imbedded in this link’s page). Darnielle also writes frequently about metal for Decibel Magazine, and maintains (at least?) two blogs/things: 1) Last Plane to Jakarta and 2) JohnDarnielle.com (also called Mus Mus Tail). And here’s his Flickr site. And here’s a mildly outdated yet humorous interview of Darnielle conducted by The Believer.