The Mountain Goats
All Eternals Deck
(Merge)
Recent Mountain Goats releases are themed, but there’s no concept to All Eternals Deck beyond the song titles being three words long. This freed up John Darnielle to unleash one of his strongest batches of songs. His preoccupations with horror, violence, and redemption give the album cohesion, while unexpected touches like a soaring string arrangement and intricate multipart vocals offer fresh variations on the band’s largely acoustic sound. Songs like “Damn These Vampires” and “Estate Sale Sign” showcase Darnielle’s skill at mixing complex lyrics and seething emotions into an addictively unstable cocktail. But the real story here is how his occasionally awkward backing band has gelled into a seamless unit, equally adept at understated ballads and hollered barnburners. This newfound chemistry may be their best concept yet. —Jeff Jackson
*
Eric Olsson
Dirty Little Secret
(independent)
Eric Olsson’s songwriting has evolved significantly since he mostly shelved the guitar and began obsessing over the piano. Dirty Little Secret showcases every aspect of this transformation, from ragtime to jumpy, Blues Brothers/zydeco-inspired fare to intimate ballads. At its best, it’s achieved something as genuinely Chicago blues/New Orleans Cajun as you can get in New England (we’ll call it “Dr. John Kerry” gumbo-chowdah groove). Some tunes nearly verge on the icky commercial blues/pop of Randy Newman, though mostly it’s too legitimately jazzy to get there and instead veers into melodic English rock/pop a la Queen or cabaret-style numbers (“Broken Clock”) that recall the Dresden Dolls or Bowie’s Aladdin Sane, and certainly don’t come from any place that’s sunny all the time. There are truly soulful moments in numbers like “November Song” that are 1970 Van Morrison-worthy. —Tom Sturm
*
Johnny Flynn
Been Listening
(Thirty Tigers)
Johnny Flynn, who recently appeared at the Iron Horse, possesses a very clever band name (he performs with Johnny Flynn and The Sussex Wit), and his music is equally clever. This young Brit taps into the English folk tradition with a heavy dose of invention, deft songcraft, and modern flavor. Unlike most “re-inventions” of folk, Flynn’s doesn’t merely update the antiquated with the trappings of rock. His tunes often surprise, and few of them sound alike. Flynn seems to approach each one as a new canvas, building the standout track “Barnacled Warship” on driving cello and fiddle, others on complex cells of finger-picked strings and percussion. Some tunes, like opener “Kentucky Pill” stray toward mere pop, while others take flight on their own pleasantly odd terms. The many textures make for varying levels of success, but this is the work of an artist searching for, and often finding, an unusual and idiosyncratic voice. —James Heflin
