Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
John Darnielle used to walk onstage with just a guitar and joke, "Hello, we're The Mountain Goats." But with every passing album, Darnielle's poetry songs that he used to sketch roughly and beautifully with just a guitar and voice have turned into pocket symphonies whose sound has expanded with their creator's visions. On his 13th studio album using the band's name (and the third as a three-piece), there is hardly a hiss or a bum note as Darnielle strums, yells, sings and prays for his and his characters' salvation in a tapestry of gothic and occult dramas which require not just your full attention, but a lyric sheet as well.
The narratives of the songs aren't as daunting as the previous album, The Life of the World to Come, where every song was named after and loosely based on passages from the Bible. But the days of sitting down with a Mountain Goats album and being able to catch a whole story in two minutes, as on anthemic ode to misery No Children from 2002’s Tallahassee LP, are as far behind Darnielle as his old day-job as a psychiatric nurse in California. All Eternals Deck, named after a pack of tarot cards, plays like a series of short films which come with no explanation or conclusion. Characters arrive on the scene, freak out, remember old loves, get lost in dreams, and then leave the stage like in one of Robert Lowell's poems.
The instrumentation is surprisingly excessive, with strings, drums and piano adding atmosphere to songs which rely more heavily on the musical accompaniment to tell the story than on any previous album. It's telling that the centerpiece, High Hawk Season, is a scary gospel strum with just a guitar, bass and male harmonies, with a chorus that mystifies us like so: "Rise if you are sleeping, stay awake / We are young supernovas and the heat's about to break." While the other songs, intelligent pieces of art that they are, may intrigue, it's disappointing that only one song here compels us to really feel anything.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
I've been a Mountain Goats fan for about 2 years now. I thought that after the last album, 'The Life of the World to Come' (which, by the way, is unbelievable), Darnielle had finally peaked. This new album goes above and beyond. Instantly memorable songs, beautiful lyrics. I think that, as an overall album, it's the best album this band has ever produced. It doesn't have as many extraordinary wonders as 'The Sunset Tree', but it's somehow more touching, more understated and subtle. It also includes the best song they've ever produced, 'High Hawk Season'. The wonderful harmonies, the phenomenal lyrics. Just buy the damn album!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:MP3 Download
This is easily the best Mountain Goats album since The Sunset Tree, which must be about the best album ever recorded.
It combines the light musicality of Get Lonely with the story-telling vignettes of Heretic Pride.
The title derives from a fictional Tarot Pack, and there is a companion piece All Survivors Pack, which was released on cassette with early copies of the album. All Survivors Pack is a more truly lo fi version of the songs, with some alternate tracks also included. If you are happy to search through a few file sharing sites, it is reasonably easy to locate a copy for download. Personally I prefer All Eternals Deck, to All Survivors Pack, but it is nice to be offered the choice.
Despite some dark subjects, this is a cheery album with some adventurous instrumentation, though I am not sure that backing up John Darnielle's voice with a barber's shop quartet on High Hawk Season (about the Walter Hill film The Warriors) is an idea that will catch on big time.
So much to enjoy, packed into one album.
It combines the light musicality of Get Lonely with the story-telling vignettes of Heretic Pride.
The title derives from a fictional Tarot Pack, and there is a companion piece All Survivors Pack, which was released on cassette with early copies of the album. All Survivors Pack is a more truly lo fi version of the songs, with some alternate tracks also included. If you are happy to search through a few file sharing sites, it is reasonably easy to locate a copy for download. Personally I prefer All Eternals Deck, to All Survivors Pack, but it is nice to be offered the choice.
Despite some dark subjects, this is a cheery album with some adventurous instrumentation, though I am not sure that backing up John Darnielle's voice with a barber's shop quartet on High Hawk Season (about the Walter Hill film The Warriors) is an idea that will catch on big time.
So much to enjoy, packed into one album.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I would like to preface this review by saying that I adore the Mountain Goats, I've been a fan since that first fateful day I picked up Tallahassee in 2003. However, this album was a large disappointment.
Darnielle doesn't have the greatest signing voice in the world, but what he does have is a skill with lyrics and few in music do. He can craft beautiful songs that will stick in your mind for weeks or months, that you can mull over and discover new meanings to again and again. This album lacks these songs in the most part. With the exception of 'Damn These Vampire' and 'For Charles Bronson' a lot of that stripped down music style that so suites John Darnielle is gone. Instead what we get is overproduced songs such as 'High Hawk Season', which I thought was a parody of the Mountain Goats at first.
It's all so overworked and overproduced it just highlights the flaws in the Mountain Goats that we all know exist, but brings them to the fore, where you can't help but notice.There's something missing that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's in stark contrast to the many other albums they have published.
If you're a first time purchaser of the Mountain Goats try The Sunset Tree, Tallahassee or All Hail West Texas to see the Mountain Goats in their full splendor.
While this album isn't bad, as such, it's such a massive step down in quality for the Mountain Goats.
Darnielle doesn't have the greatest signing voice in the world, but what he does have is a skill with lyrics and few in music do. He can craft beautiful songs that will stick in your mind for weeks or months, that you can mull over and discover new meanings to again and again. This album lacks these songs in the most part. With the exception of 'Damn These Vampire' and 'For Charles Bronson' a lot of that stripped down music style that so suites John Darnielle is gone. Instead what we get is overproduced songs such as 'High Hawk Season', which I thought was a parody of the Mountain Goats at first.
It's all so overworked and overproduced it just highlights the flaws in the Mountain Goats that we all know exist, but brings them to the fore, where you can't help but notice.There's something missing that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's in stark contrast to the many other albums they have published.
If you're a first time purchaser of the Mountain Goats try The Sunset Tree, Tallahassee or All Hail West Texas to see the Mountain Goats in their full splendor.
While this album isn't bad, as such, it's such a massive step down in quality for the Mountain Goats.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
