Goths [LP with Digital Download Card]

by The Mountain Goats

Overview

"I'm hardcore/But I'm not that hardcore," a young man muses in the early chapters of the Mountain Goats' 2017 album, Goths, and in those seven words, group leader John Darnielle neatly summarizes the album's overriding theme: what it's like not to fit in, even among those folks who don't fit in. Goths is a concept album that ponders episodes in the life of a handful of characters living in the West Coast goth scene of the '80s and '90s. The protagonists range from the young and curious figuring out their place in a community of "leather and lace and good friends," to those confronting the onset of middle age and the knowledge that you may be goth on the inside, but you're a grownup with a job and a house as far as the outside world is concerned. Goths is an album less about the trappings of the goth culture or even the music (though both certainly play a part in the story) than about folks making sense of their role in a subculture (and the larger world, too), and the album lives and dies on John Darnielle's skills as a storyteller. Thankfully, the songwriter and novelist is in superb form here, making his characters human and recognizable, and defining their lives with genuine compassion and wit, even when they're playing gigs for cocaine or trying to remember when the Batcave closed. And musically, Goths sounds fresh and buoyant; the performances have been stripped of guitars, with Darnielle's electric piano and Matt Douglas' woodwind arrangements carrying the weight of the melodies, and in a perverse way the fact the music sounds so decisively un-goth serves the songs better than if Darnielle and company had tried to mimic the Sisters of Mercy or Gene Loves Jezebel (both of whom play key roles in different songs). Just as 2015's Beat the Champ was an album about professional wrestling that you didn't have to care about wrestling to enjoy, Goths is an album about the upsides and downsides of purposefully walking out of step with the world (and "Check me out -- I can't blend in/Check me out -- I'm young and ravishing" in "Wear Black" sums up the joys of being a misfit as well as anyone could ask) that doesn't require a familiarity with goth's past or present, and it's smart, fascinating, and tremendously satisfying. After over 20 years of writing fine songs and making great records, John Darnielle and the Mountain Goats are actually getting better and more interesting, and Goths is a genuine triumph. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	05/19/2017
Label:	Merge
UPC:	0673855057910
Rank:	34373

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Rain in Soho
2. Andrew Eldritch Is Moving to Leeds
3. The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement
4. We Do It Different on the West Coast
5. Unicorn Tolerance
6. Stench of the Unburied

Disc 2

7. Wear Black
8. Paid in Cocaine
9. Rage of Travers
10. Shelved
11. For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands
12. Abandoned Flesh

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Mountain Goats   Primary Artist
Robert Bailey   Vocals
Jon Wurster   Drums,Percussion
Jason Eskridge   Vocals
John Darnielle   Piano,Vocals,Fender Rhodes
Everett Drake   Vocals
Peter Hughes   Bass,Vocals
Michael Mishaw   Vocals
Matt Douglas   Vocals,Woodwind,Keyboards
Daniel Gordon   Choir/Chorus
Stuart Garber   Choir/Chorus
Theodore Weckbacher   Choir/Chorus
Maiken Knudsen   Choir/Chorus
Jordan Williams   Choir/Chorus
Jill Boehme   Choir/Chorus
Eric Wiuff   Choir/Chorus
Mark Filosa   Choir/Chorus
Eric Boehme   Choir/Chorus
Anna Flautt   Choir/Chorus
Amanda Dier   Choir/Chorus
Alesia Kelley   Choir/Chorus

Technical Credits

Robert Bailey   Vocal Arrangement
John Darnielle   Composer
Scott Solter   Mixing
Peter Hughes   Composer
Matt Douglas   Woodwind Arrangement
Rob Carmichael   Design
Brandon Eggleston   Producer
Leela Cormen   Illustrations
Dan Perry   Vocal Arrangement