Over indie-rock arrangements that are skeletal at best, the Mountain Goats' John Darnielle rants like a man desperately struggling to tie together his streams of thought into something coherent. When Darnielle writes about dysfunctional couples, as on the excellent "No Children," the stories jell with awkward, cruel beauty: "Our conversations are like minefields/No one's found a safe way through one yet," he sings on "Southwood Plantation Road." Despite his taste for outsize metaphor ("International Small Arms Traffic Blues"), Darnielle's emotional cues remain sharp and witty; he holds it together by getting slightly unhinged.

JON CARAMANICA
(From RS 917, March 6, 2003)



(Posted: Feb 11, 2003)

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