It’s a terrific time to be a Mountain Goats fan. Not only are we edging closer to their first Australian tour in five years and an appearance at Bluesfest, but the legendary indie band have now announced a new album, their first since 2015. It’s called Goths, and it’ll be out on Friday, May 19.
The group have now unveiled their first new single, Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds.
Of the track, John Darnielle explained that the first verse and chorus of the track was penned a few years ago. “In the darkness of my desk-drawer it gathered strength and plotted its return to the surface. I revisited it after I’d decided to not have any guitars on the next album, and finished writing it on the piano.
“I imagine one of my teenage heroes, Andrew Eldritch, returning to the town where the band worked and played when they were young. His friends give him a hard time about ending up back where he started, but not because they’re mad: it’s good to see an old friend wearing the marks of time on his hands and face like well-loved tattoos.”
Speaking about the goth theme of the album, bassist Peter Hughes explains:
“The theme this time around is goth, a subject closer to my heart perhaps than that of any Mountain Goats album previous. And while John writes the songs, as he always has, it feels more than ever like he’s speaking for all of us in the band, erstwhile goths (raises hand) or otherwise, for these are songs that approach an identity most often associated with youth from a perspective that is inescapably adult. Anyone old enough to have had the experience of finding oneself at sea in a cultural landscape that’s suddenly indecipherable will empathise with Pat Travers showing up to a Bauhaus show looking to jam, for example.
“But underneath the outward humor, there is evident throughout a real tenderness toward, and solidarity with, our former fellow travelers—the friends whose bands never made it out of Fender’s Ballroom, the Gene Loves Jezebels of the world—the ones whose gothic paths were overtaken by the realities of life, or of its opposite. It’s something we talk about a lot, how fortunate and grateful we are to share this work, a career that’s become something more rewarding and fulfilling than I think any of us could have imagined. We all know how easily it could’ve gone the other way, and indeed for a long time did.”
The Mountain Goats – Goths Tracklist
1. Rain in Soho
2. Andrew Eldritch is Moving Back to Leeds
3. The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement
4. We Do It Different On the West Coast
5. Unicorn Tolerance
6. Stench of the Unburied
7. Wear Black
8. Paid in Cocaine
9. Rage of Travers
10. Shelved
11. For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands
12. Abandoned Flesh
Mountain Goats 2017 Australian Tour Dates
Thursday 6th April: Badlands, Perth
Saturday 8th April: The Grace Emily, Adelaide
Sunday 9th April: The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Wednesday 12th April: Corner Hotel, Melbourne