Get Lonely : The Mountain Goats : Review : Rolling Stone

The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle has been one of the best songwriters of the '00s: He turns out mostly acoustic, remarkably consistent albums full of engaging, heart-rending and often funny songs about things like failed marriages and speed freaks and liquor-store employees shooting burglars in the face. With the exception of a few quirky cuts, like the fantastic horn-specked rocker "If You See Light," Get Lonely is Darnielle's quietest and least character-oriented record yet, full of sad ballads and lonesome monologues. Tunes like "Woke Up New" offer elegant patter, sharp melodies and details that are both dead-on expressive and literary ("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"). It's sometimes too somber, but Darnielle's persona -- tender and slightly nasal, colloquial and commanding -- keeps you listening.