The Mountain Goats

The Mountain Goats
The Life of the World to Come
(4AD, 2009)

Song titles are rarely creative. Often a phrase or simply a word, usually one that is repeated ad nauseum, is plucked from the song and—bam—a title is born. But it isn’t always this way for the Mountain Goats. Never a songwriter to take the easy way out, John Darnielle takes the time to thoughtfully choose a title that adds extra significance to his work, one that often isn’t even actually a part of the song’s interior content.

Take for instance “No Children”, the vitriolic anthem in which the most self-destructive couple in the Sunshine State wish death upon each other—and themselves—and never mention anything about kids. But dear lord, could you imagine what would happen if the Alphas ever had children? They’d make the most venomous, self-absorbed parents this side of Jon and Kate.

In much the same way, The Life of the World to Come takes the Mountain Goat’s ability to title to the next level. Every song is named after a specific bible verse. The titles, like all the best ones, provide some extra, multi-layered context—enough to send even the most devout atheists to the nearest hotel room looking for a bible to comb through. For example, “Genesis 3:23” refers to the passage in which Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden. Given the titular context, the chorus (“I used to live here”) takes on a loftier significance.

But fear not. Darnielle’s made it quite clear he hasn’t undergone some born-again reawakening a la a Growing Pains-era Kirk Cameron. He’s simply connecting with an introspective desire to reflect on a big unknown via spiritual means. In other words, even if you haven’t been to Sunday school since second grade, you’ll grasp the obvious themes of loss, redemption, and eternal life.

The Life of the World is clearly a deeply meditative reflection on life that is bigger and longer than our own. For the most part, it’s a quieter entry into the Mountain Goats’ prolific oeuvre. However, it’s still a potent one. Using an indoor whisper, rather than his trademark yelp, Darnielle mournfully coos over soft piano and looping cello (impeccably played by Final Fantasy’s Owen Pallett).

Once we and the ones we love leave this corporeal realm, where do we go… when and why do we go? These sound like obviously unanswerable questions, but they’re also universal. Darnielle recognizes this, voicing such common anxieties gracefully and earnestly. He doesn’t pretend to know the answers, but is at ease with the unknown. On “Isaiah 45:23”, he gently sings, “I won’t get better but some day I’ll be free / ‘Cause I am not this body that imprisons me.” It’s both dark, yet reassuring, as is “Mathew 25:21.” Chronicling a patient’s fall to cancer, Darnielle sings, “I am airplane tumbling wing over wing / Try to listen to my instruments, they don’t say anything / People screaming when the engines quit / I hope we’re all in crash position when we hit.” The metaphor is both moving and apt.

Sure, there are a few slower, less immediate moments than in albums past, particularly given the sluggish pace during the middle sequence of songs, but that just comes with the nature of the subject matter and sonic palette at hand. More significantly, however, is that what could have come off as a gimmicky conceit in the hands of any less-skilled artist instead leaves us oddly at peace with whatever worlds are yet to come.

Listen: “Genesis 3:23” [at 4ad.com]

Tags: Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come, John Darnielle