Heretic Pride

The Mountain Goats' new album is going to be in stores in the middle of Feb, but advance copies started hitting desks in the week after Christmas. Heretic Pride is the latest work from the prolific John Darnielle, one of the most talented lyricists of our generation.
Compared to his Get Lonely LP of 2006, Heretic Pride feels like a return to some of his earlier (better?) efforts. In fact the title track of the album reminds me very much of This Year, one of his more popular tunes that can be found on The Sunset Tree LP of 2005.
I've had Heretic Pride spinning fairly constantly since I got hold of it, mainly because I find the combination of Darnielle's unmistakable voice and oddball story-telling lyrics enchanting. A great example of Darnielle's quirky song-writing/story-telling nous is Tianchi Lake a song about Heaven Lake, which straddles the border between North Korea and China and was the subject of a Lochness Monster-style mystery in 2007. Not coincidentally the following track is titled How to Embrace a Swamp Creature.
Heretic Pride is a beautiful album to slide into '08 with and has certainly set a lyrical and melodic benchmark for the year.

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

MySpace | John Darnielle's Blog | 4AD Records