The Mountain Goats - Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jenny from Thebes began it's life as many albums by The Mountain Goats do, with John Darnielle playing the piano until a lyric emerged. That lyric, InchJenny was a warrior / Jenny was a thief / Jenny hit the corner clinic begging for relief,Inch became InchJenny III,Inch a song which laid down a challenge he'd never taken up before writing a sequel to one of his most beloved albums All Hail West Texas. Recorded at Tulsa, Oklahoma's legendary The Church Studio with Grammy-winning producer/engineer Trina Shoemaker, Jenny from Thebes is a rich collection of showtunes, pushing Darnielle as a vocalist and The Mountain Goats as a band, broadening their sonic palette once again by leaning into influences like Godspell, Jim Steinman, and The Cars.

Singer Pur - Das Hohelied Der Liebe (Songs of Songs) [COMPACT DISCS] date 10/30/2007

From Peter Hughes of The Mountain Goats InchThe theme this time around is goth, a subject closer to my heart perhaps than that of any Mountain Goats album previous. And while John writes the songs, as he always has, it feels more than ever like he's speaking for all of us in the band, erstwhile goths (raises hand) or otherwise, for these are songs that approach an identity most often associated with youth from a perspective that is inescapably adult. InchAnyone old enough to have had the experience of finding oneself at sea in a cultural landscape that's suddenly indecipherable will empathize with Pat Travers showing up to a Bauhaus show looking to jam, for example. But underneath the outward humor, there is evident throughout a real tenderness toward, and solidarity with, our former fellow travelers - the friends whose bands never made it out of Fender's Ballroom, the Gene Loves Jezebels of the world - the ones whose gothic paths were overtaken by the realities of life, or of it's opposite. InchIt's something we talk about a lot, how fortunate and grateful we are to share this work, a career that's become something more rewarding and fulfilling than I think any of us could have imagined. We all know how easily it could've gone the other way, and indeed for a long time did.Inch