The Mac Weekly

Issue date: 2/15/08 Section: The Arts

The paradox of reviewing music is that the thing you want most to write about - your favorite band - is the one you probably shouldn't.

There is the purely occupational danger of getting carried away, writing thousands of words in flowery prose. Yet there are more personal stakes. For me, reading and writing about music is important because it always accelerates the effect of the music in question - it reveals nuances, betrays failures and intensifies the sonic rushes, peaks and valleys.

But in reviewing your favorite band, there's the terrible fear that you'll somehow diminish their integrity. Worse yet, you may discover a weakness but ignore it in your writing, irresponsibly sweeping it behind a curtain of glorifying praise.

And finally, there is something moderately embarrassing for a music critic about even admitting that you have a favorite band. Doesn't the sheer level of open-mindedness and omnivorousness demanded by today's music climate kind of exclude that idea anyway?

But there is one band to which I am more attached than any other, and that is the Mountain Goats. Head Goat John Darnielle's primary creative expertise lies in the foggiest corner of songwriting, the place where lyricism is welded to chords, melodies and rhythms, transforming the song into a literary form equal to but radically separate from that of the novel or the poem. This skill does not lend itself to description and criticism.

However, for the first time since 2002's "All Hail West Texas," the Mountain Goats have released an album that works on every level. "Heretic Pride," out next Tuesday, is what Darnielle sounds like with all cylinders firing. He endows his intricate and esoteric songwriting experiments with an infectious sense of melody, and meanwhile he and his band mates have crafted a perfect sonic setting for each song, driven by particularly strong drumming. It's enough to fully disable my rock-critic neurosis, and that's saying something.

"Heretic Pride" begins with the storming, drum-driven "Sax Rohmer #1." The song's urgent and infectious hook is one of the most memorable in Mountain Goats history: "I am coming home to you/ with my own blood in my mouth." The build-up in the verses relies on percussive, tightly coiled guitar strumming to augment the drums.

It's the best song the band has churned out in years, and one of the keys to this song's success (and the whole album's) is the strength and expressiveness of Darnielle's vocal performance.

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