by Philip Moss

After going back to his trusty boombox for the first time since 2002’s All Hail West Texas for April’s cassette-only release of Songs for Pierre Chuvin, John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats have today announced their second long player release of 2020 – Getting Into Knives. This time, though, the band headed south to Memphis, TN, to the legendary Sam Phillips Recording studio – teaming up once again with Matt Ross-Spang who engineered last year’s In League With Dragons.

Where last year’s album saw Darnielle scratching his itch for concept records, there seems to be no such over riding idea here other than to produce another immediate Goats’ classic. And over the rumbling of tight knit bass and percussion, you know from Darnielle’s opening line that this is exactly what he has delivered. ‘When stray dogs finally catch you in the alley, you don’t consider their point of view,’ he sings in that distinctive drawling cadence, which could only belong to the now North Carolina based songwriter. The imagery is as brilliantly macabre as ever, and his ear for melody is every bit as good as it has ever been. 2020 has, indeed, been an insane year, but there’s nothing like insanely good new Goats’ music to lift the spirits.

Getting Into Knives is coming out through Merge Records on 23rd October.

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