Mountain Goats
The Sunset Tree

By Scott Reid

Three years have passed since John Darnielle signed to 4AD and ditched his boom-box for a studio, simultaneously widening his potential audience and needlessly worrying fans that wanted nothing more than to hear him yell through static and tape hiss. Last year's We Shall All Be Healed took a rare personal approach lyrically, but lacked the songwriting consistency of even his studio debut, Tallahassee, released a year prior. While The Sunset Tree might not sound much different from either, it is his strongest batch of songs since his days of peddling cassettes to a cult fan base, and its production successfully takes more risks, offering a considerable depth he'd only been able to capture sporadically on his last two records. Sure, a good deal of Sunset is Darnielle and his acoustic, and unsurprisingly, he still works when the focus is on his hugely poignant lyrics — this time ranging from child abuse to Kurt Cobain's suicide. But it's the perfectly placed production tangents, like "Dilaudid's" intense "Eleanor Rigby" stringed arrangement and the comparatively rocking "Lion's Teeth," that secure Sunset as one of his finest yet. (4AD)

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High Dials - War of the Wakening Phantoms
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54-40 - Yes to Everything
Agriculture Club - The Horse Always Gets it First
Andrew Bird - Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Aqualung - Strange and Beautiful
B.A. Johnston - My Heart is a Blinking Nintendo
Beautiful Few - If You Change Your City You’re Sure To Change Your Style
Ben Gunning - Beigy Blur
Blood & Batteries - Salient
Boss Martians - The Set-Up
Bradley - Pink Pill Program
The Brat Attack - From This Beauty Comes Chaos and Mayhem
Caesars - Paper Tigers
Castle Project - Diaries of a Broken Heart
Chariots - Congratulations
Chicago & New Haven Women's Liberation Rock Band and Le Tigre - Papa, Don't Lay That Shit on Me
Civet - Massacre
Clit 45 - Self-Hate Crimes
Cloud Cult - Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus
C'mon - Blown Speaker 04
Cure - Seventeen Seconds / Faith / Pornography
Danny Marks - Big Town Boy
Darren Hanlon - Little Chills
Dead 60s - The Dead 60s
Death In Vegas - Satan’s Circus
Discover America - Psychology
Drayton Michaels - Low Stress in the Deep End
Electrelane - Axes
Electric Frankenstein - Burn Bright, Burn Fast
Emperor X - Central Hug/Friend Army/Fractal Dunes (And the Dreams that Resulted)
Epoxies - Stop the Future
Eyeball Skeleton - #1
Fair Sex - The Dark Ages
Flecton - Never Took a Wife
Freeflow - Freeflow
Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart
Grady - Y.U. So Shady?
Hanin Elias - Future Noir
Hot Springs - Rock Partouze
Joe Lapinski - Here Are the Postcards I Forgot to Send You
Kill the Thrill - Tellurique
Kryoburn - Enigmatic Existence
Last of the Juanitas - In the Dirt
Lewis & Clarke - Bare Bones and Branches
Lorna - Static Patterns and Souvenirs
Lycia - Estrella
Mae - The Everglow
Mindless Self-Indulgence - You’ll Rebel to Anything
Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
My Education - Italian
Nads - A Smile for Capitalism
Narrator - Such Triumph
Neins Circa - Sunday Anthems
Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth
Nouvelle Vague - Nouvelle Vague
Novillero - Aim Right for the Holes in Their Lives
Oasis - Don’t Believe the Truth
Ocean Colour Scene - A Hyperactive Workout for the Flying Squad
Of Montreal - The Sunlandic Twins
Parish School - Alikeness
Phantom Limbs - Random Hymns
Piano Magic - Disaffected
Ponys - Celebration Castle
Punks - Thank You for the Alternative Rock
Raquy and the Cavemen - Jordan
Ratchets - Heart of Town
Remains of Brian Borcherdt - Volume 2
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cold Roses
Satan’s Pilgrims - Plymouth Rock: The Best of Satan’s Pilgrims
Schoolyard Heroes - Fantastic Wounds
Scout Niblett - Kidnapped by Neptune
Sébastian Schuller - Happiness
Solarists - The Channel’s Twilight
Tacoma Hellfarm Tragedy - Dirty Water Flows
Thanksgiving - The River
Thee More Shallows - More Deep Cuts
Tuna Helpers - I'll Have What She's Having
Valery Gore - Valery Gore
Valley Arena - Take Comfort in Strangers
Various Artists - A Bugged Out Mix by Erol Alkan
Various Artists - Down in a Mirror: A Second Tribute to Jandek
Various Artists - From One Scene To Another : Plumline Record's Tribute to Canadian Indie Rock
Veda Hille - Return of the Kildeer
Weezer - Make Believe
White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Yo La Tengo - Prisoners of Love: A Smattering of Scintillating Senescent Songs 1985-2003
Youth Group - Skeleton Jar
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