The Mountain Goats - 'Palmcorder Yajna' (4AD)
5/5
By: Kevin Molloy
Anti-production, anti-industry, melodious catchy acoustic music with a lyrical edge. The Mountain Goats' brilliance lies in many quarters, but the vividness of the lyrics is spectacular. Each song paints a vista, an intimate detailing of the immediate surroundings.
'Palmcorder Yajna' is a gripping juxtaposition of reality and fantasy, set to a simple acoustic chord progression. Firmly rooted in the reality of a Travelodge, proceedings get wonderfully paranoid (in a good way) as John Darnielle (effectively the entirety of The Mountain Goats enclosed within one man's bodily frame) imagines a camera in the TV staring at him, and tells the listener, 'If anybody comes to see me/Tell them they just missed me by a minute.' Needless to say, the song is a marvellously bizarre trip through Darnielle's imagination.
Subversively written folk-pop, The MG's maintain a refined, lo-fi spontaneity despite such tight perfection. Fantastic stuff.
Artists in this article: The Mountain Goats
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