Album review: The Mountain Goats - 'The Life Of The World To Come'

John Darnielle’s last record was called ‘Heretic Pride’, and each track on this latest one – his 17th studio album – is based on a different passage in the Bible. Alanis Morissette would probably call that ironic. In less dexterous hands, of course, this could – and most likely would – be a disaster, but Darnielle’s lyrical prowess and songwriting nous ensures he just about gets away with it. But even though the sense of pathos in lines like “Break the lock on my own garden gate/When I get home after dark/Sit looking up at the stars outside/Like teeth in the mouth of a shark” (‘Genesis 3:23’) makes his spin on the book’s teachings less po-faced than the original, it’s still all a bit cloying.

Rob Webb

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