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THE SUNSET TREE
(4AD)
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Three years have passed since John Darnielle, who’s been recording and performing under the Mountain Goats moniker since 1991, first brought his songs to an actual recording studio, and after two albums of somewhat sluggish, under-realized production, the former lo-fi enthusiast seems to have regained his footing. His backing band sound fuller here than on the last two albums, and producer John Vanderslice helps him branch out with string arrangements, sparse keyboards, and thunderous drums. Darnielle’s songwriting, meanwhile, continues to slouch meekly away from the disjointed unpredictability that characterized his ’90s work: the melodies here sound more familiar but also more pedestrian than those on classic Mountain Goat missives like All Hail West Texas and The Coroner’s Gambit. The boombox recordings that made him a cult star, like "Going to Georgia," have an energy that could come only from an amateur — not because the sound quality was so self-poor but because the songs themselves didn’t follow any standard rules. Sure, his best albums had their share of straightforward tunes, some of them extremely powerful, and The Sunset Tree’s "Dinu Lipatti’s Bones" and "This Year" approach these heights. But there’s too much complacency here, and not enough gambits. (The Mountain Goats headline next Sunday, May 8, downstairs at the Middle East, 480 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square; call 617-864-EAST.)
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