Mountain Goats scale new heights with ‘Goths’
The Mountain Goats’ devotees have strong, specific opinions about the band — often these involve passionate, inflexible claims that the 2002 album “All Hail West Texas” or 2004’s “We Shall All Be Healed” is sheer perfection. But the attempt by the band’s cult to canonize the Mountain Goats’ early output misses something important: The new stuff is awesome.
Bandleader John Darnielle’s compositions and arrangements have grown increasingly complex. At the same time, he’s used narrow themes — 2015’s “Beat the Champ” focuses on pro wrestling; the new album “Goths” concentrates on the goth rock scene — to discuss big ideas: childhood trauma, the importance of community, the passing of adolescence into adulthood.
“I don’t sit down to write in a theme,” Darnielle said ahead of the Mountain Goats’ House of Blues show on Monday. “With this new album, I was writing a bunch of different stuff. I had the first verse and chorus of ‘Andrew Eldritch,’ I had some of ‘Shelved,’ then maybe ‘The Grey King,’ so this goth theme was coming together. But really, the major theme of this record is musical.”
There is no guitar on “Goths” (a first for the band that began with just Darnielle and his guitar). The acoustic and electric pianos that replace the guitar lay a foundation of intricate harmonies missing from his raw early work. On the foundation, the band adds lonely woodwind parts, booming choir vocals, an occasional newwave synth twist and Darnielle’s lyrics.
“I’m trying always to make sure my ears are getting bigger and not smaller,” he said.
To help expand his ears, Darnielle has embraced collaboration. Bassist Peter Hughes finished “Shelved” for the songwriter, turning it into a wonderful homage to New Order. The broad sonic reach of “Goths” depends on Matt Douglas’ arrangements of Darnielle’s ideas.
“It took me a long time to get to the idea to being open to anything other than my instinct,” the bandleader said. “But we’ve been a band long enough that I want to open up to collaboration. As a guy who has been making records for a long time, it’s important to me to always be growing, to never make the record people expect to hear. That’s what makes artists go stale, that predictability.”
What makes the Mountain Goats’ work so unique is their willingness to embrace a theme. Who could have imagined a work of genius about the ’70s Southwestern wrestling circuit until “Beat the Champ”? But Darnielle knows when to let go and just let a great new song come.
“If I write outside the theme, that’s good; it gives me a break. Then when I come back to the song I just wrote, I realize it isn’t as good because it’s not on the theme I’m currently obsessed with,” he said, laughing. “But a break is good. I think I wrote all the Ozzy Osbourne songs in the same period I was writing ‘Goths.’”
Yes, the Mountain Goats also have a justreleased, digitalonly EP about Ozzy.
“Remember, themes are deceptive. They don’t limit you,” Darnielle said. “I think about Craig Finn (of the Hold Steady) when he was writing about the same group of characters; that did not limit him. Or when Faulkner sets everything in Yoknapatawpha County — that doesn’t limit him. By cutting off some possibilities, you become aware of how many possibilities there still are within your limitations.”
What makes the Mountain Goats’ work so unique is their willingness to embrace a theme.