The Mountain Goats
Heretic Pride
(4AD)
Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle is known for his inventive, imagery-laden lyrics. On Heretic Pride, the Goats’ latest, Darnielle’s got a pile of odd, compelling stories to tell you—tales of lake monsters (“Tianchi Lake”), martyrs (the album’s titular track) and sad bathroom hook-ups (“Marduk T-shirt Men’s Room Incident”). But Pride’s “Lovecraft in Brooklyn” sounds vaguely like “Dilaudid,” from 2005’s The Sunset Tree: Other songs inspire similar melodic deja vu. Darnielle’s constantly churning out new material—and lyrically he rarely disappoints. He just seems to have a hard time coming up with fresh melodies for his beautiful words.
Lindsay McCarney
This article appears in Mar 6-12, 2008.