Man, I can't remember the last time I liked a "rock" album this much.
(Like the WHOLE ALBUM. Imagine that!) If you're not familiar, the Mountain Goats are basically one Mr. John Darnielle, and even if "acoustic" and "folky" are apt adjectives for most of his (hundreds??) of songs, the sum total of the music feels like a lot more. For the skeptics who have been listening a while, yes, the sound is far removed from the boombox recording days, but you gotta think of those as sketches and these as full-on paintings. And dude is Bob Rossing it! Except instead of happy mountains and clouds, Heretic Pride is rife with swamp creatures, chicks in Marduk t-shirts and Lovecraft-style paranoia. Of course in typical Darnielle style, the raw, jittery "Lovecraft In Brooklyn(1)" has the album's lol moment when he blurts out "woke up afraid of my own shadow...
like, genuinely afraid!" I could go on, but just check out the great opener "Sax Rohmer #1(2)" - if you like that, proceed to the title track(3), "How To Embrace A Swamp Creature(4)," "New Zion(5)" and "Autoclave(6)." Nice subtle production once again from John Vanderslice and Scott Solter. And did I mention it comes packaged with a code that gives you access to a free high-quality MP3 download of the full album? 'Cause it does. Obviously recommended.

reviewed by Chris Lemon-Red