Get Lonely almost creeps into Blue Nile territory with introspective images and thoughts being played out over a musically sympathetic background
Get Lonely almost creeps into Blue Nile territory with introspective images and thoughts being played out over a musically sympathetic background
The Mountain Goats – Get Lonely
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Apparently John Danielle (for he is power behind the Mountain Goats) did a lot of walking whilst dreaming up this perceptive, sensitive collection of songs. He must be built like a featherweight… The results of these perambulations can be seen in tracks like Wild Sage, which is a wonderful account of a walk. Observations are annotated and then used as a backdrop for more personal feelings. Musically it’s all pared to the basics, as in Moon Over Goldsboro and In the Hidden Places. Danielle’s high, plaintive delivery adds a shy charm.
The lyrics are the key to this release, at times you do get lulled by the quiet nature of the music, only to get dragged back into the song by the power of the observations.
This is from Woke up New; "The first time I made coffee for just myself I made too much of it/But I drank it all ’cause you hate it when I let things go to waste/And I wandered through the house like a little boy lost at the mall/And an astronaut could have seen the hunger in my eyes from space."
Its romantic stuff indeed; Get Lonely almost creeps into Blue Nile territory with introspective images and thoughts being played out over a musically sympathetic background. At moments the whole thing sounds very much like Aztec Camera; In the Hidden Places stands directly on the same musical ley-line as We Could Send Letters, unbridled, whimsical romanticism, but luckily very sharply and directly expressed.
Clever, romantic and understated. And, if that’s your thing, recommended.
Words: Richard Foster.