The Mountain Goats Album: “All Hail West Texas”

May the Mountain Goats never stop making records so long as I'm alive. This album comes right into cue with the rest of the Darnielle's fantastic poetic gems. The liner notes offer an explanation for new initates about the boombox sound, ubiquitously and erroneously labeled "lo-fi". Darnielle's recordings capture some inexplicable and sublime raw intimacy, which will draw you to the brink of oblivion, if you give it half a chance. After a highly metaphorical dance with death on the Coroner's Gambit, Darnielle's classic wit, straight forward style, and even keyboard percussion, return. Songs like "Balance" will remind you what it feels like to dig your own heart out with a spoon.

I own a few Goats albums and this is my favorite - The lyrics are terribly brilliant - from start to finish this album, with it's ridiculously low-budget production values and flawed guitar strums is warm, full of life - brimming with humanity, flaws and all - Darnelle is so full of charm and intelligence, and these songs potray his quirky personality quite well. Seeing The Mountain Goats live recently was tremendous and an encore performance of the song "Jenny" from this album reminded me of how much I love it - a voice, a guitar, and a hissing tape recorder - it shouldn't be as good as it is, but it is - another little miracle I guess...Enjoy!

Apparently this is the kind of music that people mean when they talk about "post-rock," but it doesn't sound pretentious. The appalling low-fi sound is due to the fact that it was recorded in its entirety on a dying Panasonic boom box, and you can hear the whine of the grinding gears. It sounds like a demo tape, because it basically is a demo tape, but somehow that sound is perfect for the feeling of the songs. The lyrics are kind of contextless, but clearly the whole album is about people finding good things and hope in bad situations and despair. It's just John Darnielle and his guitar, and you can feel the heat in the air and smell the ashtray that needs emptying as he plays and sings about running away with a girl on a motorcycle, or trying to figure out how to feed two infants, or about how Cyrus and Jeff's death metal dreams of stardom were broken up by their parents.

Perhaps you've heard the recent buzz around so-called "post-rock" bands. These bands, led by Godspeed You Black Emperor are good bands and they make good music. But the Mountain Goats proves that it is just too early to be post- anything. All Hail West Texas is the perfect foil to the ambient difficult-to-pin-down emotion of post-rock. It is straight-forward, it is simple, but it is perfect. It is a guy, a guitar, and a tape recorder. I am tempted to say that the emotion of this album is on the surface, but it is ground deep into every pop and click of the tape recorder.

Other reviews might say that the recording quality is poor. The recording is perfect. Sometimes the sound drops out in one side or another, sometimes you can hear the motor of the tape player, but this is no accident. And this is where The Mountain Goats connect to post-rock. This guy-with-guitar is more than some guy with a guitar in a bar. He knows that background noise is as important as notes and that the fuzz of his voice makes it sound more real. This is the small idea that Godspeed You Black Emperor brilliantly transformed into a movement, but The Mountain Goats have mastered it in a way that seems so basic and natural.

Have you ever found a tape that your mom recorded of you speaking when you were little? That is what this album is like.

If I could only choose one album to listen to for the rest of my days, somehow, All Hail West Texas would contend for that spot. John Darnielle is really an incredible writer, and this is his best work in my opinion. The humm of the tape recorder in the background is wonderful. His words are beautiful and surreal...honestly, just check this album out. Pure genius. It gives me the feeling of a crisp autumn day, when the sun is on it's way down, and a breeze is kicking the leaves around outside. Love that time of the year, love this record. Thanks, John.