The Mountain Goats
All Hail West Texas

[Emperor Jones; 2002]

Styles: bedroom, demos, recording technology circa 1987
Others: Daniel Johnston, you circa 1987

Much has been written about the boombox of The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. The machine acted as the minuscule recording studio for early Mountain Goats albums, which featured Darnielle alone on guitar and vocals. Each track on these records begins with a click, followed by the familiar hum of Panasonic gears. These sounds, as well as the records’ overall lo-fi white noise, lend early Darnielle recordings a sense of voyeurism. Even when seemingly fictional, his songs are deeply personal. The boombox technique adds to this feel; the singer’s simple, propulsive guitar playing completes it.

Of early Mountain Goats records, All Hail West Texas features Darnielle at his most confident. These songs are so well-written that more detailed production would have clouded their brilliance. The first track, “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton,” manages to squeeze disappointment, humor, and vivid storytelling into two-and-a-half minutes. It’s the story of Cyrus and Jeff, the only members of a metal band that may or may not be called Satan’s Fingers, The Killers, or The Hospital Bombers. The story, with friends dreaming of “stage lights and Learjets,” is familiar to anyone who has started a band. Darnielle, over lilting 6/8 time, sings the song’s conclusion with straightforward earnestness: “The best ever death metal out of Denton will in time outpace and outlive you/ Hail Satan.”

“Death Metal Band” is a prime example of Darnielle’s main skill: taking a story, either his or someone else’s, and making it vividly personable. This is done to heartbreaking effect on the album’s best song, “The Mess Inside,” which also ranks among Darnielle’s strongest work. The song details a couple’s attempts to mend a broken relationship, and its chorus – “You cannot run, and you cannot hide/ From the mess we’ve made of our lives, and from the mess inside” – is wrenching in its honesty.

The record’s middle section is its sole drawback. The seventh and eighth songs, “Pink and Blue” and “Riches and Wonders,” drag compared to the other, more cohesive tracks. Without compelling compositions to complement Darnielle’s sparse setup, there isn’t much to listen to. Fortunately, this dry spell doesn’t last long. The rest of West Texas is classic Darnielle, from the sadly nostalgic “Source Decay” to “Blues in Dallas,” which replaces the singer’s guitar with a keyboard backed by synthetic beats.

It’s tempting to suggest John Darnielle put out a few great records every few years instead of cranking out near-great ones, but The Mountain Goats’ prolificness is one of their charms, and All Hail West Texas is proof that Darnielle shouldn’t slow down. Keep them coming, John. We want to hear more.

1. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton 2. Fall Of The High School Running Back 3. Color in Your Cheeks 4. Jenny 5. Fault Lines 6. Balance 7. Pink and Blue 8. Riches and Wonders 9. The Mess Inside 10. Jeff Davis County Blues 11. Distant Stations 12. Blues in Dallas 13. Source Decay 14. Absolute Lithops Effect