The Mountain Goats: Goths ALBUM REVIEW

The Mountain Goats have been going at it now for a long time, with 16 albums under their belt, the project has gone from DIY home recordings to big-budget folk opuses like Tallahassee or Life of the World to Come. But in my opinion, despite the big budget, the former solo project, turned full band has always retained a strong core of great songwriting and as of late, the concepts of their albums have been getting stronger and more pronounced. Whereas an album like All Hail West Texas had common themes throughout the LP, the two latest LP’s Beat the Champ and now Goths focus on a singular concept and work on exploring it from every angle.

Obviously, this time around, the concept is to analyze the lives of the Goth culture, one that has been long dead, a fact that this album tackles as well. In fact, this isn’t just an album about Goth culture (though it is certainly that), but it’s an interesting and emotional look at the death of a culture and how that passing effects the people who were part of it. The most prominent side of that is how it effects Goth bands, which is understandable since The Mountain Goats are themselves a band and on this album, while they don’t really take on the role of a Goth band, they do seem to be the band playing at the eulogy of Goth culture, highlighting the good times and the bad.

The album kicks off with the epic and totally Gothed out “Rain in Soho”, the lone “Goth” track on the entire album and one that really sets the tone of the album. Then there’s the track “Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds” which is one of the many nods to classic Goth bands all throughout this album, but instead of a dower, grey sound like the previous track, The Mountain Goats instead opt for a wonderfully baroque set of instrumentation, with the eloquent and poetic lyrics laying on top.

Other highlights include “We Do It Different On The West Coast”, “Wear Black” and my personal favorite “Paid In Cocaine” which paints the picture of a former goth looking back on their life in the culture and how it helped them to identify with something they felt was important, plus, like almost every track here, this track sports wonderfully lush instrumentation and a killer hook.

Honestly, as much as I enjoyed the bands last album, Beat the Champ, I’ve got to admit that I think this album does everything that album did, but even better, and it does it without the band’s signature acoustic guitars, or any guitars for that matter. Simply put, this is one of TMG’s strongest modern efforts and is easily one of my favorite music listening experiences of the year, I just find myself enjoying it more and more with each listen.

8.7/10