The hound chronicles the sunset tree

I just recently saw the Mountain Goats in support of their new album, The Sunset Tree. Unfortunately, the show wasn't nearly as good as the last time I saw them, probably because it was way too short and was less "hit" focused, with only a few better known old songs getting played. (You can see some good pictures of the show at Chromewaves, who gives it a deservedly much more positive review.) But the show being only okay was more than made up for by the fact that the new album exceeds all expectations, and has been playing constantly in my apartment since I bought it. The album's got some quite intense content, being chiefly about lead Mountain Goat John Darnielle's experiences with an abusive stepfather. But the liner notes make it clear that the album's not intended to be a total downer, stating that it's "Dedicated to any young men and women anywhere who live with people who abuse them, with the following good news: you are going to make it out of there alive/you will live to tell your story/never lose hope". While all that might sound a little too intense and borderline-after school special, Darnielle's talent has always been to make quite dark subject matter into witty, well-crafted lyrics filled with humour and great imagery. He also manages to do all of this while still writing undeniably catchy pop songs. The song below is the immediate standout, a la Talahasee's "No Children", but I highly recommend that you buy the album because every song is great in its own right.

Dance Music

As a bonus, I thought that I would post a song from the The Hound Chronicles, which is the first Mountain Goats tape I ever heard way back in high school. I'm pretty sure the album's long out of print and I think I remember Darnielle saying something about not reissuing it. Hopefully I'm wrong, because it's a great album.

Spilling Toward Alpha