When asked what his favorite bands were, John Green stated, "My favorite genre [of music] is the Mountain Goats." I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Mountain Goats are their own genre of music. The folk-rock thing has been done over and over again, but the Mountain Goats bring a special feeling to their music with superb lyrics and competent instrumentation.
When folk of any kind is mentioned, most people immediately go to their pre-conceived notions of bad singers playing bad guitar, wailing about some deep topics. The Mountain Goats defy exceptions of folk on Sunset Tree; this is a very popish folk album. First of all, the songs are short. None of them linger longer that needed which is a nice change from regular folk (Dylan). Also, the instrumentation will not blow you away from a technical standpoint, but the chords feel warm and the music very catchy.
That brings us to the vocals. Like Bob Dylan, John Darnielle's (the lead singer/keyboardist, guitarist, everythingist) voice takes a little getting used to. In my opinion, his voice is more attractive that Dylan's and its uniqueness brings more to the table than it takes away. Your first listen of this album may be a bit of a learning experience, however. The lyrics are deep, man, and that's about all I can say. Darnielle was abused by his stepfather (apparently a lot) as a child, and the songs reflect that. Their's copious amounts of angst for both the teenager and the adult, which means this album is best listened to in the foreground, not the background: no video-games, no reading, none of that. Take a second out of your day and experience what is, essentially, art.
That being said, the best songs on the album are Love Love Love, Dance Music, and This Year. The latter is the best song on the album overall. The chorus of This Year is, "I am gonna make it/Through this year/If it kills me" which, with the backdrop of teenage love, abuse, and paranoia, feels very powerful. The song, in a nutshell, is: "Put your own problems in the verse, sing along to the chorus, and feel much better." Dance Music is the most upbeat track on the album. I focuses on a fight between Darnielle's mom and his step-father, and how he escaped from the scene by listening to dance music. The songs even resembles dance music with a lovely piano riff going in the background, perhaps to serve as an upbeat distraction for anyone going through what Darnielle did. Finally, Love Love Love is a very typical sounding song with special lyrics proclaiming the advantages of doing things for "love love love." That's it, go listen to the song if you want more, because there is nothing else to say.
Some other good songs on the album are You or Your Memory, Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?, and Song for Dennis Brown. Your or Your Memory opens up the album and demonstrated Darnielle's ability of storytelling. He sets the mood of the track, gives a location and situation, and them delivers a gut-punch, climactic lyric (which I won't spoil, but it has something to do with the title). Hast Thou Considered the Terapod follows the same formula and really demonstrates Darnielle's fractured relationship with his step-father. Finally, Song for Dennis Brown is a song about the death about the death of Dennis Brown, the famed reggae singer, juxtaposed with Darnielle's visions of his own death, the death of society, and other various scenes of destruction and drug culture.
The rest of the songs are fine as well. Some of them run together and some of them have outstanding pieces. Pale Green Things, for instance, has one of the most interesting melodies on Sunset Tree. I only have a problem with two songs: Dilaudid and Dinu Lipatti's Bones. Dilaudid utilizes a string quartet as the only backing music. The strings are very cutting and unattractive, and the style does not fit with the rest of the album at all. Dinu Lipatti's Bones is also a bit unattractive in that Darnielle opens the song in a bit of a falsetto, even though he can't, technically, sing at all.
All in all, though, Sunset Tree is a good folk album that is very accessible to the casual music fan or the hardcore folk fan. If you won't take it from me, take it from John Green: The Mountain Goats are three of his top five favorite bands.
Originality: 5/10
Artistic Quality: 10/10
Listenability: 7/10
Overall: 22/30
