THE MOUNTAIN GOATS' prime mover John Darnielle has been quietly and quirkily knocking spots off us since the dawning of the 21st Century now. His debut album 'Tallahassee' (2001) was built upon a song-cycle about an entirely fictitious relationship, while its' erstwhile follow-up 'We Shall All Be Healed' (your reviewer's initial entry point in 2003) did a good job in balancing kooky irreverence with something more personal and serious.
There was no mistaking the wholly personal and often harrowingly direct contents of both the next two Mountain Goats albums, 'The Sunset Tree' (2005) and the following year's 'Get Lonely' however. With hindsight, these albums rather split this writer's opinion, with the oft-vengeful, but utterly gripping 'Sunset Tree' arguably establishing a personal best for Darnielle, but the sometimes too sparse and introspective 'Get Lonely' (yes, yes, I know the title alone is a weighty clue) proving too impenetrable for long-term consumption.
So the good news is that with The Mountain Goats' fifth album 'Heretic Pride', Darnielle has skilfully re-established the balance between the kuriously kooked and suitably sublime and - delivering a set of songs concerning everything from mythical creatures, imaginary cults, slasher films and pulp fiction novelists - he's turned in what's already beginning to sound like the best Mountain Goats outing to date.
In typically nomadic Darnielle fashion, the songs for the album were written in a variety of locations (Alaska, Stockholm, Seattle, San Francisco and Darnielle's home in Durham, North Carolina) and he's again hooked up with long-term musical associates such as Scott Salter (production/ percussion), John Vanderslice (synths), Peter Franklin (piano) and bassist Peter Hughes. With Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster behind the traps, he's got the perfect sympathetic vehicle for his idiosyncratic brilliance and this time round they're not afraid to rock out when the spirit moves.
And it does so on numerous occasions, like on the nervy, staccato opener 'Sax Rohmer #1' - the one about the pulp fiction novelist - where they cook up a bright, hard sound and a scabrously anthemic chorus to ram home the defiant kiss-off line ("I'm coming home for you - if it's the last thing I do") or on the vivid 'Lovecraft In Brooklyn' where the guitars bite and snap, the drums pound remorselessly and the bassline circles like a bird of prey. The visceral lyrics ("woke up afraid of my own shadow/ heading for the pawn shop to buy myself a switchblade") are especially memorable and relate directly to the harrowing experiences the notorious Massachussetts horror author and renowned xenophobe suffered while living in the Big Apple.
Indeed, it's a measure of Darnielle's abilities that he can make the listener's pulse race with songs about extreme self-hatred ('Autoclave') and gleefully looking forward to being burnt at the stake ('Heretic Pride' itself). If - like me - you didn't know what an 'autoclave' was, then I can reveal that it's an instrument used for sterilising instruments and is reputed to kill all bacteria stone dead. Not much of a premise for a stirring pop tune you might think, but you'd be wrong, as indeed you would with 'Heretic Pride', where Darnielle not only revels in his imminent destruction ("transfiguration's gonna come for me/ and I'm gonna burn hotter than the sun!") but also creates an irresistible rock'n'roll backdrop into the bargain.
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So there's rock action aplenty on Darnielle's exacting terms, but still 'Heretic Pride' often hits home especially deeply when he dips into his acoustic confessional mode and employs Eric Friedlander's superb, swooping strings. To this end, make for songs like 'How To Embrace A Swamp Creature' - where Darnielle wrestles with the mistake of sleeping with someone you've previously split up with - or the excellent 'So Desperate', where a deceptively bucolic backdrop only partially disguises the fact the narrator is in too deep with a relationship ("had my hand in your hair/ tryin' to keep my cool until it became too much to bear") he can't seem to end even though he knows he must.
Friedlander's strings also feature heavily on arguably the album's finest moment: an unlikely tale of a young couple giving birth to a baby in a cheap motel off the 10 Freeway in California captured beautifully in 'San Bernardino'. Even the hardest heart is liable to melt when Darnielle sings: "I checked us into our motel and filled the bathtub/ and you got into the warm water/ I pulled petals from my pocket..I loved you so much just then" and the gorgeous arrangement holds you in the tightest of embraces. It's truly emotional stuff, as is the equally unlikely but brilliant 'September 15th, 1983': the title taken from the day when Jamaican reggae legend Prince Far I was murdered in his home and a lovely, wonky tribute to boot.
There's much more of course, not least the closing 'Michael Myers Resplendent', the one where Darnielle plays piano (one cut per album, in keeping with Goats tradition) and pays madcap tribute to, er, slasher films with a further scree of Friedlander strings for company. As always, though, 'Heretic Pride' will surely reveal further layers the more you dig and unwrap and - even on a few cursory listens - is good enough to announce itself as a contender as the best thing John Darnielle has put his name to. As yet.
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