Customer Reviews

All Hail West Texas

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I went for years being aware of the cult of John Darnielle, but never really looking into the music he makes under the nom de record, The Mountain Goats, until in the last year. While his latest records are more polished creations, the earlier releases, such as "All Hail West Texas" are truly honest gems. Darnielle may be one of the best "right below the surface" songwriters in all of popular music. His voice, and unique way of storytelling are pretty much without peer in popular music. Sure, people play and sing like him in coffeeshops all across America, but it's rare and refreshing to hear something like this on record. Songs such as "The Fall of the Star High School Running Back" and "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton" brim with unique wit and insight, while songs like "Jenny" present Darnielle's impeccable attention to detail. While The Mountain Goats may be an acquired taste to many, for people who love honest, raw guitar and voice committed to tape, you should definitely check this (and any other Mt. Goats record) out.

May the Mountain Goats never stop making records so long as I'm alive. This album comes right into cue with the rest of the Darnielle's fantastic poetic gems. The liner notes offer an explanation for new initates about the boombox sound, ubiquitously and erroneously labeled "lo-fi". Darnielle's recordings capture some inexplicable and sublime raw intimacy, which will draw you to the brink of oblivion, if you give it half a chance. After a highly metaphorical dance with death on the Coroner's Gambit, Darnielle's classic wit, straight forward style, and even keyboard percussion, return. Songs like "Balance" will remind you what it feels like to dig your own heart out with a spoon.

First of all, it's not pretentiously underproduced. it isn't produced at all. by recording an album with only his voice, an acoustic guitar and a boombox, john darnielle has stripped music down to it's original american folk/blues roots and implicitly declares himself a storyteller, or poet. it's not too hard to understand why the music's so great. he's a brilliant lyricist. he's a master of the pen. he turns relatively uninteresting songs into small slices of culture. it took me a few listens to get past the outlandish nature of his stories and begin to realize that these songs are from the heart. they're tales of lost loves, broken dreams, and searching for happiness in all the wrong places. to like Tallahassee and despise this album makes me wonder why you would like the mountain goats in the first place. as you can tell by the spare instrumentation of Tallahassee, Darnielle uses careful thought when adding any element to his songs beyond the voice and guitar. he sings with more authority than any vocalist of our time. make no bones about it, All Hail West Texas is brilliant

I own a few Goats albums and this is my favorite - The lyrics are terribly brilliant - from start to finish this album, with it's ridiculously low-budget production values and flawed guitar strums is warm, full of life - brimming with humanity, flaws and all - Darnelle is so full of charm and intelligence, and these songs potray his quirky personality quite well. Seeing The Mountain Goats live recently was tremendous and an encore performance of the song "Jenny" from this album reminded me of how much I love it - a voice, a guitar, and a hissing tape recorder - it shouldn't be as good as it is, but it is - another little miracle I guess...Enjoy!

All Hail West Texas, is John Darnielle's most inspiring and mature set of tracks yet. Strictly a one-man band, the only instruments are an acoustic guitar and a Panasonic boombox, Darnielle cranks out indie folk tunes that have the novelty songs of They Might Be Giants as though performed by James Taylor. "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton" tells the story of two guys coming up in the world of death metal and the trials and tribulations that follow them. When Darnielle proclaims "Hail Satan, Hail Satan tonight!" during the song's crescendo, we don't know whether to laugh or to ponder our protagonist's fate. "Fall of the Star High School Running Back" is a true masterpiece of the new age folk style. About a boy who falls from grace after a football injury, the line "selling acid was a bad idea, but selling it to a cop was a worse one," is hilarious, but you're not sure if Darnielle means it to be as he sings in his ultra-serious tone. The record peaks with "Balance" and "Pink and Blue," which are filled with both warmth and catchy hooks that should appeal to more than just fans. Darnielle jokes about the lo-fi recording of the album in the liner notes and it seems that he's determined to get back to the absolute basics of music, whether it's from lack of funding or not. It's this determination that makes an artist like Darnielle unique. So, if you appreciate smart, witty, heartfelt music let The Mountain Goats climb to the top of your heap.

Mike Ingrassia

Apparently this is the kind of music that people mean when they talk about "post-rock," but it doesn't sound pretentious. The appalling low-fi sound is due to the fact that it was recorded in its entirety on a dying Panasonic boom box, and you can hear the whine of the grinding gears. It sounds like a demo tape, because it basically is a demo tape, but somehow that sound is perfect for the feeling of the songs. The lyrics are kind of contextless, but clearly the whole album is about people finding good things and hope in bad situations and despair. It's just John Darnielle and his guitar, and you can feel the heat in the air and smell the ashtray that needs emptying as he plays and sings about running away with a girl on a motorcycle, or trying to figure out how to feed two infants, or about how Cyrus and Jeff's death metal dreams of stardom were broken up by their parents.

Like his last few releases (The Coroners Gambit and Full Force Galesburg), John Darnielle hasn't changed his style one bit: His acoustic guitar and panasonic boom box remain the only two true instruments on the record. Unfortunately, as John says in the liner notes, the boombox is dying and a low hum, similar to turning on an amplifier really loud yet not playing, masks his voice and the guitar.

Thankfully, the songwriting is still intact and as good as ever. Classic Mountain Goat songs are born on this record, with personal favorites being "The Best Death Metal Band out of Denton" and "Color in Your Cheeks." Darnielle's honest and observant style of writing puts a real stamp on his songs, one that can captivate the listener into his world and see life through his eyes. He's a rare and important song writer of the generation and his works shouldn't go unnoticed.

Go get a copy of "All Hail West Texas!" to understand what makes the Mountain Goats so unique. The experience of the music is unlike any other in contemporary music today, and with repeated listenings can become a classic on any music lovers shelf.

Perhaps you've heard the recent buzz around so-called "post-rock" bands. These bands, led by Godspeed You Black Emperor are good bands and they make good music. But the Mountain Goats proves that it is just too early to be post- anything. All Hail West Texas is the perfect foil to the ambient difficult-to-pin-down emotion of post-rock. It is straight-forward, it is simple, but it is perfect. It is a guy, a guitar, and a tape recorder. I am tempted to say that the emotion of this album is on the surface, but it is ground deep into every pop and click of the tape recorder.

Other reviews might say that the recording quality is poor. The recording is perfect. Sometimes the sound drops out in one side or another, sometimes you can hear the motor of the tape player, but this is no accident. And this is where The Mountain Goats connect to post-rock. This guy-with-guitar is more than some guy with a guitar in a bar. He knows that background noise is as important as notes and that the fuzz of his voice makes it sound more real. This is the small idea that Godspeed You Black Emperor brilliantly transformed into a movement, but The Mountain Goats have mastered it in a way that seems so basic and natural.

Have you ever found a tape that your mom recorded of you speaking when you were little? That is what this album is like.

john darnielle, my second favorite person in all of music next to stephen malkmus (sorry john), cannot write a bad song, it's just not within his capabilities as a performer. while this set of raw, guitar-only, tape-hissy tunes isn't quite as memorable or poignant as his two previous efforts--to me at least--there are a few songs that stand out as career highlights: "best ever death metal band," "jenny", and "faultlines" are excellent examples of darnielle's acerbic wit, as well as his devastatingly accurate portrayals of relationships in distress. stand-outs "the mess inside" and "source decay" are two of his finest story-songs.

here's hoping this won't go down as john's last direct-to-boombox recording. some things just sound right, you know?

If I could only choose one album to listen to for the rest of my days, somehow, All Hail West Texas would contend for that spot. John Darnielle is really an incredible writer, and this is his best work in my opinion. The humm of the tape recorder in the background is wonderful. His words are beautiful and surreal...honestly, just check this album out. Pure genius. It gives me the feeling of a crisp autumn day, when the sun is on it's way down, and a breeze is kicking the leaves around outside. Love that time of the year, love this record. Thanks, John.