FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: mahgeetah on April 07, 2010, 10:10:51 AM
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Any suggestions for the best introductory-level Mountain Goats album? :)
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Everyone seems to have their favorites. The early stuff is lo-fi and just John. The later stuff is more produced with a full band. I started with "All Hail West Texas" and "The Sunset Tree." Those two are probably good jumping off points.
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The Sunset Tree is pretty accessible and great
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I agree that the Sunset Tree is probably the best place to start. All Hail West Texas is my favorite, but the boombox-recorded sound might not be the best way to be introduced to them.
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The only one of their I've heard so far is The Life of the World to Come, which is amazing. It seems a good place to start, because it definitely made me want to check out more of their stuff.
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I would say the All Hail West Texas/Tallahassee/We Shall All Be Healed stretch is what initially lured me in.
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"Boats ease into the harbor/Bearing real suspicious cargo"
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2wGvFa_gIA[/youtube]
This!
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As mentioned, there seems to be a divide between the more recent 4AD albums and the earlier material, a divide that oversimplistically can be classified as: Early= lofi+solo guitar; Later=better quality recordings, bigger band.
There are certainly exceptions in the earlier material but the important thing is the songwriting quality and voice is there pretty much from the get-go.
I'd actually recommend Zopilote Machine. I believe I first read about the band in a zine (!) where the writer wrote glowing reviews about a bunch of the singles and/or cassette (!!) releases. I think I later saw this album listed in Spin or Rolling Stone's "Best Album You Did Not Hear" list and then I tracked it down, to much delight.
A couple of other recommendations.
The non-official band site, http://www.themountaingoats.net/ , offers a good sampling of some rare songs. It also links to live shows hosted at the Live Music Archive, http://www.archive.org/details/MountainGoats .
As discussed here, http://www.friendsoftom.com/forum/index.php/topic,1908.0.html , the Live Music Archive is a great resource for live shows with a lot of artists a la Phil Lesh and moe. but also the Mountain Goats, the Mekons, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Man or Astroman, Acid Mothers Temple, Spoon, Low, Minutemen and more.
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Also, if you want to get a taste of the sound of some of the recent albums, there are some free mp3s here: http://www.mountain-goats.com/discog.html
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Thanks! I bought Sunset Tree and I'm really enjoying it. I'm glad to have some guidance for where to go next.
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Full Force Galesburg was my starting point and it has been twelve years of obsession ever since. It is a wonderful album from start to finish.
But you really can't go wrong with the other recommendations mentioned here as well. 14 Songs About West Texas and Sunset Tree are amazing as well.