Led as always by songwriter John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats remain a distinctive pleasure in a landscape plagued by homogeneity. Theirs is a steadfastly intelligent, ever-evolving body of work that’s impossible to confuse with anyone else, even as the sounds often surprise. Their latest breakthrough, Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan, out November 7 on LP, CD, cassette, and digital through Cadmean Dawn, moves into the territory of the stage musical and welcomes backing vocals by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
A full-blown stage musical might seem like a bit of a descriptive overstatement for a songwriter with numerous concept albums in his discography. This album’s predecessor, 2023’s Jenny from Thebes, has been categorized as a rock opera, and in fact, Darnielle has called it a “fake-musical.”
But as it plays, Through This Fire exudes legit stage musical qualities, and straightaway with “Overture,” an ornately scaled orchestrally arranged opener, courtesy of longtime Mountain Goat multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, that would certainly be appropriate for a theater production.
Naturally, and fairly, Through This Fire will be assessed as a considerable departure in terms of instrumental thrust, but that’s not really anything unusual for John Darnielle, a guy who began his musical journey as part of the lo-fi “movement” by strumming a guitar and singing into the microphone of a boombox.
Inevitably, Darnielle transitioned, sometimes subtly (1997’s Full Force Galesburg, 2002’s Tallahassee) and at other moments in bigger, bolder bursts (2008’s Heretic Pride, 2012’s Transcendental Youth), into brighter, smoother studio environments. Surely there were listeners who considered the move to higher fidelity a cop out, but for a songwriter of Danielle’s ability and ambition, there was really only one place to go.
Well, make that numerous destinations and side trips as the Mountain Goats’ musical canvas has continued to expand. See the sequential pleasures of 2015’s Beat the Champ, 2017’s Goths, and 2019’s In League with Dragons, a thematic trifecta on fringe passions (pro wrestling, Goth culture, and Dungeons & Dragons, respectively), and the albums recorded back-to-back in legendary Southern studios, 2020’s Getting Into Knives (Sam Philips Recording in Memphis) and 2021’s Dark in Here (FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals).
The constant through it all has been Danielle’s literary bent as a songwriter, as he functions as a lyricist rather than just spilling poetics atop the instrumentation or crafting narratives to fit into the scheme. This is an important distinction to make, as Darnielle does favor storylines as a lyricist, which in turn makes him a good fit for the Melville-esque stage musical angle explored in Through This Fire.
Maybe most crucially, Danielle and his bandmates and associates don’t lean too hard into the stage musical motif; this is still primarily a Mountain Goats album, even if the most ornately conceived in the group’s 23-album discography. But it’s not always ornately conceived; “Dawn of Revelation,” “Your Bandage,” and “Rocks in My Pockets” all connect like Mountain Goats songs, although some grow in structure as they progress.
There are a few of those sweet surprises, too, such as Tommy Stinson on bass for two tracks, “Cold at Night” and “Dawn of Revelation,” and there’s also the samba-ish “Lady from Shanghai 2,” which sounds like it could’ve been produced by Creed Taylor for CTI Records.
The Mountain Goats’ engagement with some “lite” (or “smooth” or “Middle of the Road”) aesthetics on prior albums makes the turn toward grand theatrical sweep less unexpected and easier to accept. There’s also Jenny from Thebes to consider. Ultimately, Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan finds the Mountain Goats succeeding in their ambitions. Few musicians take creative swings this big, and so successfully, so deep into their career.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
