Well, we'd better (see below) have a review of The Goats' latest album then. John Darnielle, who is The Goats, has never been one for shying away from emotional trauma. As RS and Iwan noted, The Sunset Street was all about his relationship with his abusive stepfather. In Tallahassee, which is still his best album for my money, he explored the what it was like to be in a relationship that was on the rocks in the visceral No Children. In Get Lonely, he goes a step further and explores the aftermath of the departure of a partner. If you don't like albums of sad songs, then this is clearly not for you because these songs are really sad. He expresses perfectly the desolation, the loss of purpose, the grief, and the futile attempts to find distraction in a succession of perfectly turned and beautifully played songs, rather more lavishly orchestrated than in previous offerings. He ranges from the mundane consequences - making coffee for two out of habit and drinking it all because she didn't like waste - to the cosmic - "an astronaut could have seen the hunger in my eyes from space." At best, relief comes only for a minute. He takes refuge in memories until they become too vivid to bear.
So, it's not going to send you skipping down the street exactly but the attraction comes because we've all been there and everything he describes is instantly recognisable, expressed clearly and poetically, and seamlessly combined with his music. The good news is that he's touring Australia in the near future and playing Sydney in January. I'm going
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