I’ve been goofing off watching YouTube videos from The Mountain Goats. So far I really like what little I’ve heard. Some awesome songwriting there. On looking them up on Wikipedia, however, I’ve found that they’ve been recording since 1991 (!) and have about a zillion albums and EPs.
Any Mountain Goats fans here? Which ones would you recommend?
I really like The Sunset Tree, but I don’t know their older stuff all that well – I just have scattered songs.
Lots of great stuff (and I haven’t heard all of it!) but my 2 favorite albums are: All Hail West Texas and We Shall All Be Healed. Palmcorder Yajna, Young Thousands, The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton, Jenny and Pink and Blue are some of my favorite Mountain Goats songs. I also love No Children from the Tallahasse album.
Agreed on All Hail West Texas. All of his others have moments of greatness between some forgettable stuff, but everything in All Hail West Texas is gold. Course, it helps that I love his lo-fi sound more than his more produced stuff, and that album was right after he sounded like a field recording but right before he got really clean and polished. He’s not a cleaned and polished kind of singer, it needs to be warm and fuzzy to help pass the time.
One more vote for All Hail West Texas, although I’ve enjoyed just about everything I’ve heard from Mr. Darnielle. I really like how he’s a storyteller first and foremost, beyond just being a singer/songwriter.