All Hail West Texas

 (13 customer reviews)

I went for years being aware of the cult of John Darnielle, but never really looking into the music he makes under the nom de record, The Mountain Goats, until in the last year. While his latest records are more polished creations, the earlier releases, such as "All Hail West Texas" are truly honest gems. Darnielle may be one of the best "right below the surface" songwriters in all of popular music. His voice, and unique way of storytelling are pretty much without peer in popular music. Sure, people play and sing like him in coffeeshops all across America, but it's rare and refreshing to hear something like this on record. Songs such as "The Fall of the Star High School Running Back" and "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton" brim with unique wit and insight, while songs like "Jenny" present Darnielle's impeccable attention to detail. While The Mountain Goats may be an acquired taste to many, for people who love honest, raw guitar and voice committed to tape, you should...Read more

May the Mountain Goats never stop making records so long as I'm alive. This album comes right into cue with the rest of the Darnielle's fantastic poetic gems. The liner notes offer an explanation for new initates about the boombox sound, ubiquitously and erroneously labeled "lo-fi". Darnielle's recordings capture some inexplicable and sublime raw intimacy, which will draw you to the brink of oblivion, if you give it half a chance. After a highly metaphorical dance with death on the Coroner's Gambit, Darnielle's classic wit, straight forward style, and even keyboard percussion, return. Songs like "Balance" will remind you what it feels like to dig your own heart out with a spoon.

First of all, it's not pretentiously underproduced. it isn't produced at all. by recording an album with only his voice, an acoustic guitar and a boombox, john darnielle has stripped music down to it's original american folk/blues roots and implicitly declares himself a storyteller, or poet. it's not too hard to understand why the music's so great. he's a brilliant lyricist. he's a master of the pen. he turns relatively uninteresting songs into small slices of culture. it took me a few listens to get past the outlandish nature of his stories and begin to realize that these songs are from the heart. they're tales of lost loves, broken dreams, and searching for happiness in all the wrong places. to like Tallahassee and despise this album makes me wonder why you would like the mountain goats in the first place. as you can tell by the spare instrumentation of Tallahassee, Darnielle uses careful thought when adding any element to his songs beyond the voice and guitar. he sings with more...Read more