ALBUM REVIEW: The Mountain Goats Navigate New Sonic Balances on ‘Jenny From Thebes’

Loosely intended as a sequel to 2002’s All Hail West Texas, The Mountain Goats’ 22nd LP, Jenny From Thebes, brims with John Darnielle’s quirky vocals, lit-savvy lyricism, and heartfelt melodies. Unlike the stripped-down and lo-fi West Texas, though, Jenny is fully instrumented and, as with most of the band’s albums over the past 20 years, benefits from a high-quality production MO.

Opener “Clean Slate,” replete with snappy drums, piano, and horn-and-string arrangements, establishes the project’s tone, drawing from rock, easy listening, and lounge templates. “Only One Way,” featuring guest Kathy Valentine’s supporting vocals, is similarly founded on buoyant synths and showcases a silky horn solo. Darnielle’s images and declarations, on the other hand, evoke a sense of unease and uncertainty (“You’re gonna have some trouble at the border / … there’s only one way out”). The result is an effective lyrical-sonic contrast.

“Take all your worry and care / feed it to the big machine,” Darnielle sings on the rollicky “Murder at the 18th St. Garage,” adopting a mock-chirpy tone to critique the fallouts of corporatization. “From the Nebraska Plant,” meanwhile, is relatively austere, a synthy refrain and jangly guitar complementing Darnielle as he addresses “years back,” soliloquizing on the passage of time.

On “Water Tower,” Darnielle takes a big-picture view: So much happens in the course of a life — events auspicious and inopportune, comic and tragic, meaningful and banal — and yet whatever transpires is “floating downstream.” The stance could easily occur as flippant or overly simplistic; Darnielle’s gentle timbre, however, reflects empathy for the enormous suffering that people endure and appreciation for the mysteries of existence.

With “Going to Dallas,” Darnielle applies the leave-no-trace principle to his own sojourn on planet earth, metaphorizing a Zen perspective (“My exit will be clean / when I vanish from the scene / you won’t find any thumbprints”). Closer “Great Pirates” unfurls as Darnielle’s good-luck-to-everyone anthem. He’s “heading off to war,” and the rest of us are “high in the hands of the crosswinds / or in the arms of the undertow.” Either way, we’re all “great pirates testing the waves,” proceeding through currents and riptides as best we can.

Jenny From Thebes spotlights The Mountain Goats as they explore various sonic balances, Darnielle exercising his narrative and impressionistic bents. While the album may eventually be regarded as a second-tier work — eclipsed by such milestones as 2000’s The Coroner’s Gambit, 2002’s All Hail West Texas, 2004’s We Shall All Be Healed, 2008’s Heretic Pride, and 2012’s Transcendental Youth — we can, for now, enjoy a largely engaging, if occasionally “lite,” set from one of popular music’s more prolific acts.

The Mountain Goats (photo by Jackie Lee Young)

The Mountain Goats’ Jenny From Thebes is out Oct. 27 on Merge Records.