Heretic Pride (Dig)

 (11 customer reviews)

After a highly produced sound on his last album, John Darnielle strips down and returns to a grittier sound. This is the first album since "Coroner's Gambit" to lack an obvious central theme, but the charm and introspection of John's lyrics are not lost. John's characters are back, and doing what they know best. They join cults, are accused of being heretics, they huddle in cars together. Each song is its own little story and you truly feel for the characters.

I have been playing this album nonstop since it arrived in the mail last week. The orchestration/instrumentation is absolutely beautiful. It's very raw sounding, which i missed dearly on the last album "Get Lonely". I disagree with the reviewer that claims the instrumentation is a departure from their previous work. On the contrary, this album sounds more like previous albums such as "The Sunset Tree" and "Tallahassee". Songs such as "Sax Rohmer #1" and "Heretic Pride" have that familiar furious, frenetic driving...Read more

The Mountain Goats' latest venture is a phenomenal piece of pop art that rarely fails to impress. It's less autobiographical and personal than some of Darnielle's later work, like The Sunset Tree, but it's so full of well-versed accoustic melodies and pop/folk singalongs that it's not a bad thing. after the initial obsession with catchier songs like "Heretic Pride", you'll find yourself litening to the moodier songs over and over again (Lovecraft in Brooklyn is a gem).

Wow. This has been the only album in my CD player since I picked it up. I keep finding new favorite tracks to obsess about. So far, I've been fixated on "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident," "Autoclave," "In the Craters of the Moon," and "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," certain that each was my new favorite Mountain Goat song. When the album Get Lonely came out I was disappointed. I wondered if John Darnielle might have finally tapped out the creative vein he'd been mining for over a dozen albums. Every artist has to face that crisis eventually--after you release over three hundred songs like the Goat's have, it seems almost inevitable that eventually you start repeating yourself, or begin to parody your own work, or else veer so wildly from your roots into new territory that your old fans barely recognize you.

Yet, with Heretic Pride, John has managed to evolve, creating a sound that is different from what he's done before, yet still firmly rooted in the elements that make...Read more