for the record

Author: Emily Temple

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle is a musician's musician. If I had any doubts in my adoration for him and his projects, I would be reassured by the knowledge that I was in good company. All my other favorite bands like him too. A personal favorite reference: in "Girls Like Status,",a B-side track from the epic "Hold Steady," Craig Finn growls, "It was song number three on John's last CD/ 'I'm going to make it through this year if it kills me'" - a reference to Darnielle's 2005 release, The Sunset Tree. Heretic Pride, just released on Tuesday, Feb. 19, is another one to be quoted and loved by regular doting college girls and rock giants alike. The newest of 16-odd records, Heretic Pride douses the listener in something both familiar and quite new - the songs are like short stories written by a burning genius and played for you by your best friend, who is just maybe a little bit in love with you and with whom you are also possibly just a little bit in love.

Darnielle's last album, Get Lonely, was the third installment in an autobiographical set of albums, a decidedly introspective experiment that, while I'm sure was cathartic for the man himself, left me pretty cold. I started up the 2006 album on a long car ride to some distant city, but only made it halfway through before my travel companion looked over and said, "Let's put on some real Mountain Goats." Of course, "No Children" it was, and then the devastating classic "Going to Georgia," and soon we found ourselves playing both Zopilote Machine and Tallahassee in their entireties before we were satisfied - before we had gotten the gloomy Get Lonely out of our heads and hearts.

Thankfully, Heretic Pride escapes that sad arc, and with room to spare. The album's first track, "Sax Rohmer #1" bursts from the gate uncharacteristically exuberant, while still assuring the loyalists that Darnielle's themes and hang-ups have not strayed: "I am coming home to you/ with my own blood in my mouth." In fact, Darnielle's lyrics are the centerpiece of all of his music - the instruments themselves seem only an afterthought, or at the very least merely a vehicle - or at least they have in the past. His voice is lilting yet strained, as if every word carries the weight of the world. Heretic Pride whirrs with strange ruminations and secret plotlines about dead reggae heroes, prom queens, hopeless urchins, Michael Myers, H.P. Lovecraft, some girl having a baby in a hotel bathtub and a host of other characters - macabre or precious, real or imaginary. As always, Darnielle sneaks into the back of your brain with sticky lines you can't quite make out but feel anyway.

For me, nothing quite approaches the understated brilliance of some of his previous songs, but perhaps that is because on this album, the lyrics aren't given all the attention they deserve. Or perhaps it's just that the "background" music - traditionally a steady staccato strum pattern on a single guitar - has ceased to be background and has become a legitimate part of the package. Heretic Pride bustles with a big sound - the songs are fuller than any I've ever heard from Darnielle, and not always in a good way. As is already clear, I fell in love with the Mountain Goats through their sparsest songs and, while there is enough of that in Heretic Pride to satisfy me, there are also too many instruments and, more generally, people other than John Darnielle. The usually magnificent Annie Clark (of St. Vincent fame) sings back-up vocals on "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident" and it would just be better without her. Although some of these extras are regulars, maybe for once Darnielle should quit being the popular kid in the class and just play for me.