176. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee (2002)

First thing: I don't like John Darnielle's voice. I never have, and I don't think I ever will. It's rare for me to be so irritated with somebody's singing voice, but every single time I listen to a Mountain Goats song I wonder how much better these songs would be with a better singer. Second thing: I don't much like the Mountain Goats. I think they appropriate the trappings of folk music without really doing them justice. These songs have no real sense of atmosphere; Darnielle's insistence on making the lyrics carry all the weight lends the whole album an accompaniment-ish quality, as though this were one of those "rock-by-mail" things that Robert Pollard sometimes does where he and a collaborator record an album by long distance. It's poetry with gentle folk backing, vaguely pleasant music (notwithstanding Darnielle's incongruous, childlike voice) that does not try one single new thing throughout its entire 40 minutes. A lot of people like this, and good on them, but I've never been one to believe that emotion and emotion alone can carry music. Just compare this to Devendra Banhart's Rejoicing in the Hands, a similar but nevertheless far superior record. Banhart's voice is far more emotionless, almost mantra-like, but the beauty of it meshes so well with the music that it constructs the emotion. This sounds pasted-together; nothing fits. This is literate and boring, like those bland, colorless books of short stories produced by the dozens.

MY RATING: 3.9

The Mountain Goats - "Oceanographer's Choice"