The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come

Author

Scott Aitken

Published

Monday 23rd November

Whenever an established artist decides to tackle the weighty issues of religion, there’s a fair chance it’s going to create a divide between long time fans who may feel as though an artist that they look up to has ‘souled out’ and given up their artistic individuality in order to create work based upon a higher power. ‘The Life of the World to Come’ is a new album from The Mountain Goats, written by principle songwriter John Darnielle and inspired passages from the bible and littered with biblical imagery. Overall I have to say The Mountain Goats seem to have not been able to overcome the religious tag that so heavily hangs above this album, one that’s main let down is the uninspired musical side of the album. ‘The Life of the World to Come’ seems to bet most of its hopes on Darnielle’s song writing talent however this time this is not even enough to save this album from falling into clichéd Christian rock territory, sounding more akin to a cheesy Hillsong album.

‘1 Samuel 15:23’ is a slow starter with sparse guitar and uninspired drum work with Darnielle unconvincingly spouting for us “go down to the netherworld, plant grapes’ before the song abruptly ends just as it began. ‘Psalms 40:2’ is straight up Christian-rock with Darnielle’s screeching hysterically trying to put on the rock image with driving acoustic guitar however failing to give enough real emotion to the subject matter he’s trying to approach. ‘Genesis 3:23’ is a pop song so sugary listeners should be wary of being turned diabetic.

There are of course some high points on the album, specifically when Darnielle drops the band and turns to lone piano and vocals, delivering some of the most genuine performances on the album. ‘Genesis 30:3’ is one of the slower piano driven ballads on the album and comes closest to what Darnielle tried to achieve on The Life of the World to Come – a bold, passionate and most importantly honest message to god rid of all the truism that usually plagues the more overblown religious albums by popular artists. ‘1 John 4:16’ is the strongest track on the album and a personal favourite, Darnielle’s tale of love and devotion enhanced by a solemn piano and haunting string work.

Darnielle has always been a poet who decided to pick up a guitar and put his words to music, using his limited musical vocabulary to create spaces for his carefully chosen wordplay. This time around however his inexperience really shows with the same musical elements being regurgitated along the album leaving the album as a whole sounding repetitive and dull. The Life of the World to Come does have some highlights throughout the album however this is sadly not enough to make it an enjoyable or even accessible album that should come from an artist of Darnielle’s eminence . Lyrical passages full of biblical imagery can work but only when the artist invests their own personality into the work. This album may suit fans of Christian rock however long time fans of The Mountain Goats should give this one a miss.