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Album Details

• Artist: The Mountain Goats
• Album: All Eternals Deck
• Label:
• Year of Release: 2011
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: tosnob on 2011-03-18

I don't think that there can be much disagreement that The Mountain Goats are one of the most under-appreciated bands in indie rock. All they do is put out consistently strong records, year after year. On March 29th they enter with their latest installment All Eternals Deck.

The time around the band continue to mature in their sound. Traces of American roots music still linger, but the expanded use of piano, cello and other strings take the music to an entirely new level. The moods set with tracks like "Age of Kings" are among the band's best.

Those arrangements weave well with the lyrics about adventure and mythology. The result is an album-length narrative that will have you smiling with witty turns of phrase (or a Capella pirate vocals on "High Hawk Season") and looking on with horror at the masked violence of songs like "Outer Scorpion Squadron".

This definitely is not an album for someone who wants to cherry pick a cut here and a cut there to listen to. There aren't any singles to speak of, instead the band have given a solid effort that needs to be experienced front-to-back to be properly absorbed.

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