The Sunset Tree

Mountain Goats

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 26, 2005)
• Original Release Date: April 26, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: 4ad / Ada
• ASIN: B0007W22IE
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,148 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There has always been something about John Darnielle’s lyrics; even when you’re not exactly sure what he’s talking about, it always feels like he’s telling it like it is. Not that metaphor is a major player on The Sunset Tree, the latest album from the Mountain Goats (of which Darnielle is the founder, frontman, and once only member.) Songs like "This Year," "Dance Music," and "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?" are painfully honest about his traumatic childhood and abusive stepfather. You might think that an album about child abuse would be hard to listen to, but as always, hearing Darnielle's lyrics is an honor and a privilege. Trying experiences are captured with deceptively simple statements (is there any better expression of determination than "I will make it through this year if it kills me"?) On this CD, Darnielle also remembers revered (yet cocaine-addled) reggae star Dennis Brown. ("It took all the coke in town to bring down Dennis Brown. On the day my lung collapses, we’ll see just how much it takes.") Though the Mountain Goats have apparently done well enough for Darnielle to quit his day job as a nurse, they don't yet have all the fans they deserve. Don't wait to join the fold. --Leah Weathersby

Product Description

Following the success of "We Shall All Be Healed", The Mountain Goats return with a third record for 4AD. "The Sunset Tree" was recorded by John Vanderslice at Prairie Sun Studios (a favorite haunt of Tom Waits, among others) in North Carolina. The album features long time collaborator Peter Hughes, along with Franklin Bruno, and acclaimed jazz cellist Eric Friedlander.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best disc of 2005, December 12, 2005

By	M. Emrich "embo55" (Denver, Co.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I consider this the best release of the year, which is all the more surprising since I am not particularly fond of the Mountain Goats previous work. John Darnielle has written far and away the best lyrics of any disc this year. The tunes are not always up to the stories, but the images his songs present and the emotions they evoke are phenomenal. John Darnielle does not have a particularly great voice either, in fact some may find it almost grating, but he has the best delivery I have ever heard. "This Year' is the standout song on the disc. Never has a song presented the feeling of being a disillusioned teen so well. The chorus "I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me." will resound in your ears. It is a song that the worst of us singers want to scream along with as it blasts out of our car radios. "locking eyes, holding hands twin high maintenance machines." I love that line. "The scene ends badly as you might imagine in a cavalcade of anger and fear." Is followed by "There will be feasting and dancing in Jeruselum next year." He Juxtaposes images of dread with hope. It's brilliant stuff. Some of his images are admittedly difficult to grasp. But there is hope amidst despair throughout this brilliant tale. Old fans may find this disc overproduced, but i heartily disagree. Every string and keyboard is gorgeous. Check out the strings on "Dilaudid". They evoke the feeling of a deep despair and self destruction like a simpler production could never achieve. Enough said. If you have not yet heard this disc buy it now.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simply perfect, May 15, 2005

By	Hanna Eastin "clay artist" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought The Sunset Tree a week ago, sight unseen and note unheard. I listened to my other purchases first, since I was relatively familiar with them and knew what I was getting. Then I peeled off the celophane and popped in The Sunset Tree. No idea what to expect... I thought, upon the first notes of You or Your Memory, 'my god what an awful nasal voice'... then- 'oh.' Then lying on the floor watching the ceiling fan turn thinking, 'this is the most perfect album. There is no other way for this to be.' I am a self-employed artist and listen to music all day, and into the evening, as I work. This cd makes it hard to go to bed at night. It would almost be better to just sit still by the stereo and listen, over and over again, to this quiet steel masterpiece. I can't say enough, but it would be too much. Just buy this, and save yourself an afternoon or two or three, to really listen to it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Darnielle keeps his cool., April 27, 2005

By	Kirk J. Faulkner "thedailykirk.blogs.com" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At a live show John Darnielle (who, despite his objections to such statements, IS the Mountain Goats) once told a story about being in an interview in Germany where he was trying to say something about one of his songs was questioned by the interviewer who said "Yes, well maybe, but you are famous liar!"

This idea rises from the fact that through the dozen or so Mountain Goats records that have proceeded Sunset Tree John Darnielle has created an entire emotional universe populated with fictional characters, fictional travels and historicaly based fictional stories all injected with heavy doses of genuine and real emotion.

So how excited was I when i heard that the new MG album was going to be based not off fictional characters but off of Darnielle's own life growing up in Southern california with an abusive step father.

I did wonder if he would be able to maintain the kind of emotional subjectivity that made his early songs so enjoyable. Confesionalist whining has its place and in my mind it is not in a mountain goats song.

How pleased was I when i finally got my hot little hands on this album and found that John Darnielle was able to treat his own dark moments with the kind of emotional honesty and humor that made albums like "All Hail west Texas" and "Tallahassee" the great albums they were.

As mentioned in the other review this is the third album where John has utilized multipl instruments, a big departure from his original one-dude-with-one-guitar set up. Even though it would be impossible to call this new incarnation low-fi there is something very elemental about it that holds true to the low fi ideal of shunning over production. For example the song "Dilaudid" consists of only Darnielle's nasal lyrics and a string section. It is both beautiful and primal.

There are lulls in the album as there have been with the last two studio albums. these lulls however fall between some of the greater pop songs I have heard this year. "Dance Music" instantly cimbed to the top of my favorite pop song list and other songs like "This Year" and "Broom "People" have the same hope-in-the-face-of-utter-hopelessness quality that makes all Mountain Goats albums the emotional treasure troves they are.

I won't go on and on but definitely download the few free songs linked to on Amazon, definitely go out and by the album and if you really wan to experience the Mountain Goats, go and see them live. You will not forget the experience soon.

To read my over all write up of the Mountain goats go to:
http://thedailykirk.blogs.com/the_daily_kirk/2005/04/the_mountain_go.html