The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree (20th Anniversary Edition)

The Mountain Goats is the long-running project of the prolific John Darnielle. After building a cult following throughout the 90s with a stream of boombox-recorded releases Darnielle signed to 4AD in 2002. It marked a major shift: for the first time, he embraced the studio as a creative tool. Between 2002 and 2009, 4AD released six Mountain Goats albums, the band is still active today and are on their 22nd release.

It’s a mark of Darnielles extraordinary fertility that, of the 800-plus songs he has recorded, only a handful directly concern his own life experience; The Sunset Trees 13 tracks, written after Darnielles stepfather passed away in December 2003, are the bulk of this small subsection.

Experienced as a whole, The Sunset Tree is a redemptive rather than a remorseless record. As the liner notes say: “you are going to make it out of there alive.”

Features: This Year, Up The Wolves, Love Love Love.

20th anniversary reissue on apricot coloured vinyl with a Chris Bigg designed OBI strip & CD. Remastered at Abbey Road. Limited copies.

Tracklist:
A1. You or Your Memory
A2. Broom People
A3. This Year
A4. Dilaudid
A5. Dance Music
A6. Dinu Lipattis Bones
A7. Up the Wolves
B1. Lions Teeth
B2. Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod
B3. Magpie
B4. Song for Dennis Brown
B5. Love Love Love
B6. Pale Green Things