To be fair, I'm only familiar with a few of the 25 or so albums that John Darnielle has put out with the Mountain Goats. But this seems to be a wider reaching effort than I've heard before. Generally, John is known for his descriptive lyrics. And there is no lack of that here.The words stay true to the Goats' past. Frustration, fear and loathing in the fast lane. But musically, it seems more dynamic that the usual indie-folk acoustic fare. The opening track has an almost retro-pop vibe that could be a GBV song if it had more distorted guitars and a throatier vocalist. From there, we get a desolate piano ballad and a horn soaked hacienda.
It cools off a while in the middle. The strength of the first few tracks overshadow the storytellng vibe that John is known for in general, alhough here it is too subdued. There's no chous-riffic chant of making it through this year if it kills you.
The closer title track is a last ditch saving grace in this relatively short collection. It brings back the horns amoungst a light shuffle to give a perfectly Christmas-jazz feel. Maybe it's just cold outside and maybe I'm too old. But I certainly wasn't transcended. (2.5 of 5 stars)
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