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A sparse yet not simple outing for this member of the Dead Milkmen, including some truly folksy stuff like the title track and “Cool Water”, and surprisingly sophisticated original tracks delivered in the same man-and-his-acoustic guitar aesthetic.
No topic is too esoteric for John Darnielle to base an entire Mountain Goats album on, not even the persecution of pagans as a wave of Christianity moved through Europe in the middle ages.
No denying this band exists in a dual space of Gen X ridicule and genuine nostalgia. The new album is filled with the same sunny indie-rock wink-and-grin disposition that rightfully earned them the title, broadcasting into/from the airwaves of 1994.
One final challenge awaits: swim through the Reservoir of Bliss, filled with honey, liquid moonlight, and endorphins, then dance in slow motion across the infra-disco, as BRONCHO's underwater guitar syrup and whispered falsetto choruses are playing.
Unbridled rock and roll from the west of France, where the vehicles may be smaller but where the spirit of le garage lives on, giving us good opportunity to apply the term "howling" and generally act as American as a keg party in the woods.
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