Search - Mountain Goats :: We Shall All Be Healed

Best album of 2004

jeffffffff | Manchester, CT USA | 02/26/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In addition to having the most idiosyncratic song titles ever to grace the back of a CD jacket, We Shall all be Healed is John Darnielle's best song writing yet. Look for 15-20 lines on this CD to kill you again and again. The music is a little less eclectic than on Tallahassee, their last studio album, but it's also more cohesive, sticking mostly with John's acoustic guitar, Peter Hughes on bass, and Franklin Bruno on piano. That is until Mole, a song so sparse it can't help breaking your heart. It opens with a few verses about the narrator visiting someone in the hospital (all the character's in these stories seem to be speed addicts with vague hopes and dreams that set them apart from each other while their situations bind them firmly together). The song then breaks into a piano and guitar bit that moves along slowly but surely, like clouds marching determined across the sky. I can only describe John's strumming here as fatalistic -- I can only assure you that this will make sense once you hear it."

The best Mnt Goats record so far and that's saying something

Kirk J. Faulkner | New York, NY | 02/06/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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. I can't recommend this album strongly enough."

The smoothness doesn't make it less edgy

James Maxey | Hillsborough, NC United States | 07/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've loved the Mountain Goats ever since Atom and His Package covered three songs. The songs were so honest and funny I had to seek out their source. The first Mountain Goats album I laid hands on was Full Force Galesburg, and it was a shock. Atom and His Package was electronic and frantic. The Mountain Goats was almost exclusively one man with an accoustic guitar performing songs that were still honest and funny, but also haunting and raw. His songs were recorded on poor equipment--you could actually hear the drone of the tape recorder's motor in the quieter moments of the album. The lack of polish and pretention gave the songs greater emotional impact for me, and I became an instant fan, buying up every MG recording I could find.



My first reaction to "We Shall All Be Healed" was mostly negative. The songs are professionally produced and expertly engineered. The guitar is accompanied by organs and piano and synth effects like glass breaking and insects chirping. It almost sounded like a different band.



Fortunately, I stuck with it and now I'm hooked. The cleaner, more professional sound actually makes for a terrific backdrop for the lyrics, which are still as powerful as ever. The ugliness of addiction, death, and betrayal found in the lyrics float on the beautiful music that makes the truths in the words harsher and starker. It took a little while to grow on me, but I now think this is the best MG album yet. I'm using songs from this album to spread the Mountain Goats gospel. Check it out."