The Mountain Goats - 'Get Lonely'

Age mellows rock ’n roll fervor. In the case of singer/songwriter John Darnielle (a.k.a. — The Mountain Goats), it also means branching out musically. On his new album, Get Lonely, Darnielle continues the personal reflection that he began on his previous release, The Sunset Tree. But while Tree was a collection of anthems about his mixed relationship with his abusive step-father, all righteous and determined to escape a suburban family hell, Get Lonely is a more subdued effort, steeped in loathing, pity and sadness. The acoustic guitar strum and plaintive voice that Mountain Goats fans love are still there, but there’s so much more now. Get Lonely is a lush, beautiful, break-up themed album.

Back in his lo-fi days, Darnielle’s use of other instruments (like the electric guitar on “Weekend in Galesburg”) was the equivalent of Ernest Hemingway using an adverb: very rare, and always effective. But now, starting with 2002’s Tallahassee and continuing on to Get Lonely, Mountain Goats’ songs have all sorts of things going on, as subtle as they may be.

Get Lonely opens with “Wild Sage,” a melancholy song that sets the tone of the album. Over guitar and piano, Darnielle describes leaving a house early in the morning, but his tone and word choices convey that this is not just a regular routine. If The Sunset Tree documents his reaction to his stepfather’s death, then “Wild Sage” is about the day after. Full of grief, he walks along the road, trips, falls and is too miserable to do much about it. It’s awfully pathetic imagery, but it’s awfully powerful, too.

The next song, “New Monster Avenue,” has an unwieldy pseudo-improv-jazz feel to it, as if Darnielle and drummer Corey Fogel could come undone at any second. The music fits the lyrical mood perfectly. Later, on “Half Dead,” the Goats deliver a single-ready description of compulsive cleaning and a one-way conversation between Darnielle and his deceased father. With bells and electric guitar, “Half Dead” offers some hope, if only because its tone is slightly more chipper.

On the title track, Darnielle comes close to something like determination (albeit to “get lonely and gasp for air”). The somber vibe continues on “Maybe Sprout Wings” and “Moon Over Goldsboro.” String arrangements add a dramatic framing to match Darnielle’s soft delivery, especially on “In the Hidden Places.”

Song after song, Darnielle describes going through sad motions, one after another. As the year passes him by, it’s all he can really do, while visions of his departed loved one continue to plague him.

Grief turns to paranoia on “If You See the Light.” Darnielle has been locked inside his house all winter, and he’s really beginning to hate his town. Luckily for the listener, Fogel’s drums and the horns provided by Gene and Jen Baker liven up the tune, making it as delirious as Darnielle himself. On the album-closing “In Corolla,” he manages to finally get away from the townspeople, as well as his stepfather, by baptizing himself in water. Through this baptism, Darnielle is reborn and free.

Get Lonely manages to be many things at once. It’s a warm-sounding indie record, but it’s also a disparaging tale of loss. It’s a standard Mountain Goats masterpiece, but it drops character sketches for first-person portrayals of heartache.

But what’s best about it is that, despite how hyper-specific Get Lonely gets, despite how much it truly only applies to Darnielle, it ultimately conveys universal experiences and emotions. There’s empathy to be had, for everyone has gone through the motions, and emotions, described on this album. We’ve all lost lovers, family members and pets; hell, these songs even work as requiems for a dropped cone of ice cream.

Regardless of how it’s taken, Get Lonely is still an understated triumph.