The Mountain GoatsGet Lonely
[4AD - August 22, 2006]
*Sixeyes Score: 8.3 out of 10
Review by Alan Williamson
I get the inkling that The Mountain Goats John Darnielle has many, many rich hidden places. He's a writer who believes and trusts in mystery. If he was a filmmaker he wouldn't show you the blood, the murders, and nary a glimpse of the aftermath, his camera and script would hone in on the psychological aftermath, the devastation to those left behind.
Get Lonely, the latest work from The Mountain Goats, John Darnielle, grabbed me on second listen when the song, "In The Hidden Places", opened with the couplet "Autumn came around/Like a drifter to an on ramp." An image that hasn't yet come clear in my mind, but one, which continues to be, swept up, like dry brown leaves, in my imagination. The instant standout on the record, "Woke Up New", is one of his most touching and endearing songs. That song alone will garner Darnielle newly adoring fans, fans that have much to discover among an eclectic back catalogue. But, lest we forget, there are other quiet treasures to be hoisted from the cold earth of this new Mountain Goats record. "Wild Sage" opens the proceedings by bringing us out of the house with him and taking us into an unsavoury part of Anytown, USA. Title track, "Get Lonely", continues the sparse, pared to the bone, effect, in fact it achieves the pinnacle of this feeling here. But the aura of quiet desperation rises, in the uplifting melody and arrangement of the aforementioned, "Woke Up New". This song and the entire album benefiting wonderfully from the talents of cellist, Erik Friedlander, and the production and instrumental flourishes of Scott Solter.
Where 2005's The Sunset Tree was a smack up against the head, Get Lonely is a thin, deep scar in smooth, soft flesh… ruminated, examined, and brought out like a box of old photographs.
Get Lonely will slowly creep into manyMountain Goats fan's favourite albums. Slowly, because it doesn't hit as hard, sonically, or viscerally, and it will have to grow in the listener as quietly as a bruise fades away.
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nice review. i like the imagery you use to you compare the sunset tree to get lonely. i'm really looking forward to hearing this in its entirety.
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