The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
John Darnielle has been quoted as saying that this record is by far his best work ever and I am inclined to agree. And that means something coming from a guy who owns every record this one-man virtuoso has put out. Like his last album Tallahassee, We Shall All Be Healed is a concept album. Each song is written for and about a group of tweakers from Claremont CA. As unromantic a subject as that is, John turns their plight into an epic. He turns their struggles into poetry. He gives words to desires that most people will (hopefully) never know. The first single, "Palmcorder Yajna" is an instant favorite. It is a straightforward Mnt. Goats song with everything you have come to love: Simple strumming, intense nasal singing and beautiful imagery of the profane. The thing that sets it apart is the amazing tone that Darnielle captures. I can only describe it as the hope of the hopeless. "Your Belgian things" is a slower and heartbreakingly beautiful lament while "Linda Blair Was Born Innocent" is a dark and powerful ode to the burning desire to get spun. John Darnielle teamed with other one-man wonder band John Vanderslice in the production of this album and it works. It maintains the connections to John's Low Fi beginnings while giving him an atmosphere in which he is able to make music that is not only lyrically charged but aesthetically beautiful as well.
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