Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

[Psychocandy]

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I've had a bit of a love affair going on with the music of the Mountain Goats since I picked up a CD in a second hand record store that collected together a whole bunch of rare tracks from the start of their career. A copy of their forthcoming album The Sunset Tree has come into my possession and it would be lax of me not to sing its praises.

The Mountain Goats have long been famous for the stripped back acoustic nature of their songs and although they retain a degree of simplicity on this album the addiction of violins and other instruments on a lot of the songs bestows upon them a much fuller sound than in the past. I've only listened to the album once (actually I’m three quarters of the way through my first listen as I type this) and let me tell you, if you're a fan of this band (and I know there are a few on this forum), then this collection of songs is gonna knock your socks off. It's easily their most accomplished album thus far.

The lyrics as always are wonderful but the aforementioned embellishments to the bands sound really do make a huge difference. I would recommend this to anyone who has been enjoying Iron & Wine, Devendra Banhart, Sufjan Stevens etc. Mountain Goats did this brand of quirky, simplistic, acoustic honesty before any of them and did it better too.

[bowieee]

The mountain goats are one of the finest lyricists around. Pretty much every song I've ever heard is a gem and I'm going to be scooping this album up in the near future.

It's going to be strange hearing them non-stripped down with their instruments.

[Psychocandy]

Originally posted by bowieee
It's going to be strange hearing them non-stripped down with their instruments.

Don't worry...there are some songs that adhere to the old blueprint and the additional instruments aren't used, as so often happens, to mask weak songwriting and poor structure but instead to further convery the emotional thrust of the songs in question. It's a stunning album...possibly their best yet. Truthfully i'm kinda glad that they have progressed beyond the limitations they seemed to be forcing themselves to operate under since day one. A band has to grow and challenge themselves or they risk becoming pedestrian.

[beastieben21]

This is a great disk. Not a bad song on it. Darnielle's voice has its limitations and can at times be grating, but I think it's an acquired taste. And me done acquired it.

Another solid album to showcase, Psycho.