Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
15. Mountain Goats, We Shall All Be Healed
Original position on my Stylus ballot: #45
Caveat - I’ve bitchily debated semantics with the Trent Reznor of this ensemble more than once on the world wide web. And just as Robert Christgau’s A-button gets stuck on bands that have deigned to acknowledge his existence, I don’t know if I would have given the Goats as much time as I have if its leader didn’t occasionally care unduly about what I post on internet forums. I mean, it’s not like I wish John Linnell earnestly flaunted an English degree, you know? Then again, I do wish Michael Stipe would write better lyrics now that he’s determined to enunciate, and We Shall All Be Healed is where John Darnielle went for the big brass NPR ring after a decade of what retroactively feel like worthwhile demos (I’m ignoring Tallahassee because it’s relatively thin and has too many metaphors). Just listen to all the elegant hoo-ha on “Slow West Vultures”! That production is warm, I tell you. Warm!
Following that implication of vastness are a series of drug narratives, break up odes and valentines to endurance that tug at the heart while respecting your mind, all guaranteed to make you feel better about your MFA or debate giving poetry another shot, depending. The big money moment on MG albums tends to be the penultimate track, and this album’s (“Against Pollution”) is a doozy, with bullets to the face and last days coming over a lurch I’ll compare to pastoral Led Zep just so I don’t have to bring up Automatic For The People (whoops!). But seriously, this is the last time I’ll bring up REM here because indie rock rarely gets more gorgeous than this.
