The Mountain Goats...

I can't hold back any longer. I've been listening to The Sunset Tree a whole lot and while it won't be released until the end of this month I just gotta give you a little taste. Unlike past Darnielle albums (last year's We Shall All Be Healed the notable exception) The Sunset Tree lays Darnielle's insides out to bake in the sun. There are no fictionalized couples here, no stories of characters in bars; it's his life presented for all of us to see. The central figure on the album is his step father, and he looms over every nook and cranny of this record. It's powerfully stuff, not necessarily confessional but certainly intimately personal.

Musically, some long time fans of Darnielle's work have bemoaned his more advanced recording techniques(read: the fact he is no longer is singing into a Walmart boombox), but frankly I love the more fully realized sound. It certainly doesn't negatively affect the piercing nature of his lyrics.

Currently my favorite song on The Sunset Tree but that might change tomorrow:

The Lion's Teeth