Dark in Here | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 25, 2021 | |||
Recorded | March 9–14, 2020 [1] | |||
Studio | FAME (Muscle Shoals, Alabama) | |||
Length | 46:45 | |||
Label | Merge | |||
Producer | Matt Ross-Spang | |||
The Mountain Goats chronology | ||||
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Singles from Dark in Here | ||||
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Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 80/100 [2] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
American Songwriter | [4] |
Paste | 8.3/10 [5] |
Pitchfork | 7.8/10 [6] |
PopMatters | 7/10 [1] |
Rolling Stone | [7] |
Dark in Here is the 20th studio album by indie folk band the Mountain Goats, released June 25, 2021 through Merge Records. [1] The album was recorded in March 2020, just one week after Getting Into Knives (2020), at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. [8] Dark in Here was produced by Matt Ross-Spang, who also produced Getting Into Knives and engineered In League with Dragons (2019). [1] In addition to being available on streaming and download services, the album was released physically on CD and vinyl.
The album's lead single, "Mobile", featuring organists Spooner Oldham and Will McFarlane, was released on April 20, 2021. [9] "The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums" was released on May 11, 2021, and the title track "Dark in Here" was released as the final single on June 3, 2021.
The album's cover art is a portion of the painting Valborgsmässoafton i Bergslagen, Grangärde i Dalarna ("Walpurgis Night in Bergslagen, Grandgärde in Dalarna") by Anshelm Schultzberg (1896). [10]
Publication | List | Rank | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Paste | The 50 Best Albums of 2021 | 43 |
All tracks are written by John Darnielle
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Parisian Enclave" | 1:25 |
2. | "The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower" | 3:20 |
3. | "Mobile" | 3:42 |
4. | "Dark in Here" | 3:23 |
5. | "Lizard Suit" | 4:15 |
6. | "When a Powerful Animal Comes" | 5:26 |
7. | "To the Headless Horseman" | 3:54 |
8. | "The New Hydra Collection" | 2:28 |
9. | "The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums" | 5:26 |
10. | "Before I Got There" | 4:14 |
11. | "Arguing with the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review" | 3:57 |
12. | "Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light" | 5:10 |
Total length: | 46:45 |
The Mountain Goats
Additional personnel
Production
Chart (2021) | Peak position |
---|---|
US Americana/Folk Albums ( Billboard ) [12] | 6 |
US Independent Albums ( Billboard ) [13] | 40 |
US Top Album Sales ( Billboard ) [14] | 16 |
US Top Rock Albums ( Billboard ) [15] | 46 |
John Warren Vanderslice is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer. He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio in North Oakland. He has released sixteen full-length studio albums and five remix records and EPs on Dead Oceans and Barsuk Records and has collaborated with musicians such as the Mountain Goats, St. Vincent, and Spoon.
The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. Although he remains the core member of the band, he has worked with a variety of collaborators over time, including bassist and vocalist Peter Hughes, drummer Jon Wurster, multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas, singer-songwriter Franklin Bruno, bassist and vocalist Rachel Ware, singer-songwriter/producer John Vanderslice, guitarist Kaki King, and multi-instrumentalist Annie Clark.
John Darnielle is an American musician and novelist best known as the primary, and originally sole, member of the American band The Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist. He has written three novels: Wolf in White Van (2014), Universal Harvester (2017), and Devil House (2022).
The Coroner's Gambit is the fifth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on October 17, 2000, by Absolutely Kosher Records. Several songs from this album, including "The Coroner's Gambit", "Bluejays and Cardinals", and "Shadow Song", were written about Rozz Williams, who ended his life two years before the release of the album, and was a personal friend of John Darnielle. In some live versions, he will reference Williams by first name.
All Hail West Texas is the sixth studio album by the Mountain Goats. After the slight increase in production values on The Coroner's Gambit album of 2000, All Hail West Texas was the last Mountain Goats album recorded entirely on John Darnielle's trademark Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox until 2020's Songs for Pierre Chuvin. Similarly, it marked the end of an era for the band, as it was the last album by the Mountain Goats to feature only John Darnielle until 2020. The cover advertises that the album consists of "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys."
The Sunset Tree is the ninth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 26, 2005 by 4AD. The album's songs revolve around the house John Darnielle grew up in and the people who lived there, including his mother, sister, stepfather, friends, and enemies.
Tallahassee is the seventh studio album by the Mountain Goats. It was the band's second new album to be released in 2002, and it marked quite a few changes. After releasing records on small record labels such as Shrimper, Ajax, and Emperor Jones, Tallahassee was the first Mountain Goats album to be released on a widely known independent label, the British alternative rock label 4AD. It was also the first Mountain Goats album to have an official single released, for the song "See America Right."
Rian Craig Johnson is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film Brick (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget. Transitioning to higher-profile films, Johnson achieved mainstream recognition for writing and directing the science-fiction thriller Looper (2012) to critical and commercial success. Johnson landed his largest project when he wrote and directed the space opera Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), which grossed over $1 billion. He returned to the mystery genre with Knives Out (2019) and its sequel Glass Onion (2022), both of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, respectively.
Full Force Galesburg is the fourth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released in 1997.
Get Lonely is the tenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released in the UK on August 21, 2006 on 4AD. It was released in the US on the following day, August 22, and in Japan on December 6, 2006. It peaked at #193 on the Billboard top 200 album chart. At least four outtakes from the album circulate - 'Naming Day', 'Keeping House', 'They are Stone Swallowers' and 'Going Invisible'.
The Mountain Goats are an American, Durham, North Carolina–based band, led by American singer-songwriter John Darnielle. Darnielle began recording in 1991, and is known for his highly literate lyrics and his lo-fi recording style. The Mountain Goats' albums have featured a constantly changing line-up of musicians, with Darnielle the only constant; when performing live, the band commonly comprises only Darnielle backed by Peter Hughes on bass guitar and Jon Wurster playing drums. Their discography consists of 22 studio albums, four compilation albums, three live albums, ten demo albums, 18 solo extended plays, six collaborative extended plays, and 24 singles. In addition, three unreleased albums circulate amongst collectors.
Transcendental Youth is the fourteenth studio album by the Mountain Goats. The album focuses on outcasts, recluses, the mentally ill, and others struggling in ordinary society. The album is loosely unified around a group of people living in Washington state. At least one character is confirmed to be recurring from All Hail West Texas, an earlier album.
"Sax Rohmer #1" is the first track on the Mountain Goats' Heretic Pride album released in 2008 on 4AD.
Beat the Champ is the fifteenth studio album by The Mountain Goats, released on April 7, 2015 on Merge Records. The release is a concept album on professional wrestling, though frontman John Darnielle has stated that several of its songs are "really more about death and difficult-to-navigate interior spaces than wrestling."
Matt Ross-Spang is an American Grammy award winning record producer, engineer, and mixer. His credits include such artists as Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Al Green, John Prine and Elvis Presley.
Goths is the sixteenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on May 19, 2017, on Merge Records. The band has stated that Goths was inspired by an adolescence listening to The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Joy Division, as well as hearing songs on the radio station KROQ-FM. The album also marked the band's first release as a four-piece outfit, having added touring member Matt Douglas (keyboards/woodwinds) as a permanent fixture of the band following the By, For, and About the Trees Southeastern Fall Tour that supported their previous record, Beat the Champ.
In League With Dragons is the seventeenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 26, 2019, on Merge Records. Inspired by tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the album has been described as a "partial rock opera" with influences from noir literature.
Songs for Pierre Chuvin is the eighteenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 10, 2020. It is the first album since 2002's All Hail West Texas to feature only the band's frontman, John Darnielle, as well as the first since then to be recorded entirely on a boombox. The album was first released on cassette and digital, with CD and vinyl releases following in 2021.
Getting Into Knives is the nineteenth studio album by indie folk band the Mountain Goats, released on October 23, 2020, through Merge Records. The album was recorded in March 2020 over six days at Sam Philips Recording in Memphis, in the same room where psychobilly band the Cramps tracked their 1980 debut album Songs the Lord Taught Us. Getting Into Knives was produced, engineered, and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang, who previously engineered In League with Dragons (2019). In addition to being available on streaming and download services, the album also saw physical release on CD, vinyl, and cassette.
Bleed Out is the 21st studio album by indie folk band the Mountain Goats, released on August 19, 2022, through Merge Records. The album was written between December 2020 and January 2021, and recorded immediately following this at Betty's in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Bleed Out was produced by Alicia Bognanno of Bully. The album was preceded by the lead single "Training Montage".