John Darnielle is The Mountain Goats and he reminds me of post-protest Bob Dylan. His songs are mostly acoustic, more rock than folk, and his lyrics are almost as opaque, though you always feel you can grasp just enough of what is going on and then fall back on his sense of poetry and enjoy the imagery. Some of the songs on this album are straight forward and affecting. Your Belgian Things is about the possessions of a former lover being removed from his flat (I think) and is beautifully observed. He does inhabit some grim territory - like an intensive care ward on Mole - but you sense that the album title isn’t ironic and he may even mean it. For Darnielle at his most visceral, try No Children on his previous album, Tallahassee, also recommended.
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