THE MOUNTAIN GOATS – Get Lonely (4AD)

‘Get Lonely’? Is that an order? Or an extension of the group name, ala The Ramones Leave Home? A low-key release in every sense of the word following The Mountain Goats recent trilogy of masterpieces on 4AD (which, as I keep telling the world to no avail, constitute a body of song-writing prowess that could easily stand up to, say, Dylan’s mid-60s form or the first three Leonard Cohen albums or whatever your benchmark for such things is), and lacking the usual dedications, explanations and sundry clues, fans are likely to be on the look out for any narrative hook to help illuminate John Darnielle’s latest collection of songs.

As it turns out, it’s clear by about halfway through the first listen that the title tells us all we need to know. The 12 songs herein all concentrate unremittingly upon the thoughts and travails of a man who has been abandoned by his beloved and is left heartbroken and alone, with no friends, no purpose to his life – just empty space stretching out ahead of him. As is often the case with Mr. Darnielle, it’s difficult to tell whether this is old heartbreak or new, real or imagined, or whether it’s even the same character speaking through each song, but the theme is undeniable and this is one of the most thoroughly isolated, bereft, LONELY albums you will ever hear.

And god is it ever depressing – the tone here is not so much Rimbaudian raging and self-affirming howls against the dark as it is simply.. nothingness, entropy, a lack…. a vast expanse of time to waste – nothing left to do but torture yourself with stinging thoughts and memories until the pain dulls to nothing. So in the extremely unlikely event that you’re reading this John, and you need someone to talk it all over with, drop me a line (I’m not being facetious either).

Musically, Darnielle has abandoned the drama, determination and punk performance aesthetic that have characterised much of his earlier work. Gone is the yelping and thrashing of yore as he sings his softest, accompanied by purely functional strumming, with occasional bone-dry, Warren Ellis-ish violin or piano melancholy providing the only real counterpoint.

Absent too is the sense of very solid, no-bullshit pain and strife that made itself felt on previous albums – no domestic violence, no alcoholism, no juvenile delinquents or doomed love affairs present themselves here – the pain of ‘Get Lonely’ is purely internal and subjective – “ghosts and clouds, and nameless things..”.

All of which sadly leaves the Mountain Goats open to hesitant forays into the kind of singer-songwriter cliché I’ve previously applauded them for avoiding – the narrator of ‘Get Lonely’ is entirely self-absorbed, allowing for none of the almost unbearable empathy for the plight of outsiders that gave ‘We Shall All Be Healed’ and ‘Tallahassee’ much of their power. The arrangements on some songs are sparse and sluggish above and beyond the call of duty, touching on the kind of sub-Will Oldham / David Pajo tight-lipped ‘misery-by-numbers’ shtick that afflicts so many in the lower leagues of the guy-with-guitar hierarchy.

Above all else though, there’s a suspicion here that for the first time in his career, Darnielle is pulling his punches. The capital sin for this kind of song-writing; he doesn’t give it to us straight. For all the album’s abject unhappiness, he IMPLIES, remains archetypal… there’s an ‘I’ and there’s a ‘you’ and the ‘you’ has gone, but without the obviously-too-painful-to-elaborate back-story, is this enough for us to inject gravitas into endless songs full of fragmented every-day trivia and staring into space? Ok, many would justify this in terms of writing songs with universal appeal and they might have a point, but if I’m going to sit through all of these descriptive verses about looking at trees or standing in lakes, please give me the fucking facts or my attention is going to drift elsewhere.

Harsh words, and he doesn’t deserve them, for just like Husker Du’s ‘Candy Apple Grey’, this initially underwhelming piece of work is one that can become a FINE record, can maybe even save lives, if it hits you in the right circumstances, with the right level of blood-alcohol and wretchedness, with the right emotions and brain-chemicals doing a number on yr soul and skull. For the one thing Darnielle hasn’t thrown out with the bathwater is his verbal imagination and his understanding of the hammer-blow power of words – you can put this album on, make a cup of tea, scratch your head, write an email – but when he hits you with “..and an astronaut could see / the hunger in my eyes from space..”, you’ll pay attention. Whatever else I or others may say about ‘Get Lonely’, no one will doubt that it is genuine, that it is compelling and intermittently beautiful. Whatever the Mountain Goats choose to say to the world, I’ve still got a lot of time for it, and for all it’s concessions to vague, maudlin, pleasantly-arranged singer-songwritery-ness, ‘Get Lonely’ is, as the 4AD press release sagely notes, “never merely pretty.”

It’s arrived a month or so late for me (I hope!), but this is the kind of record for which the wisdom of your decision to listen to it won’t hinge so much on such issues as ‘enjoyment’ or ‘appreciation’, as on how much you NEED it. Recent heartbreak? Intolerable loneliness? – give it a try. Feelin’ groovy? – nothing for you to see here.

The previous albums – particularly last year’s incredible ‘The Sunset Tree’ - you should get hold of no matter who you are or where you're at, just, y’know, BECAUSE. But this one is a different kettle of fish entirely. This one will depend;

When the violin comes in gently for the chorus, and John sings;

“..And I will get lonely,
and gasp for air,
and send your name up, from my lips,
like a signal flare”

Do you ignore it, do you just think about it a bit, does it reach your knees, tingle in your spine…. or does it get you in the gut?