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The Mountain Goats

Transcendental Youth

 

 

 

Release Date: October 2, 2012
Label: Merge Records
Bandcamp: https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/transcendental-youth
Reviewed By: Jill Stephenson

This anxiety ridden yet wishful album from The Mountain Goats is an enjoyable album. Right out of the gate with “Amy Aka Spent Gladiator 1,” purposeful strums accompany John Darnielle’s vocals and a sense of catharsis is developed. The whole album seems like the journal of that strange kid in the back of all of your class that you kind of wanted to be friends with. But in a totally good way. “Until I Am Whole” is one of the album’s slower tracks and is filled with a sense of longing, “I think I’ll stay here/ Until I feel whole again/ I don’t know when.” Perhaps the most energetic track of the record is “The Diaz Brothers” which translates into being incredible entertaining. The album as a whole reminds me of middle school, I can’t pinpoint why but I think the record succeeds in taking you somewhere whether it is familiar or new.
The Mountain Goats will be playing at Emo’s East in Austin on the 5th of December.

The Life of the World To Come

Released: October 6, 2009
Label: 4ad Records
Myspace: /themountaingoats

 

 

 

 

By: Dana Cedillo

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS return this month with their biblically charged concept album “The Life of the World To Come”, a record awash in haunting piano monologues and earnest yet unpretentious lyrics. Taking song titles directly from the bible verses which inspired them, songwriter John Darnielle weaves stories of despair, hope, and the impermanence of life in his typical haunting fashion. Check out the confident “Genesis 3:30” as well as the mournful cancer patient ballad “Matthew 25:2”. The Mountain Goats will be playing November 18th at Antones in Austin, TX. Log onto Mountain-Goats-dot-net for more information.