Transcendental Youth (studio album) by The Mountain Goats

I know this album is not everybody's cup of tea, but the fact that so much energy is poured out of an album about drug addicts messing their lives up just exacerbates JD's brilliance in artistry.

From paladisiac 01/02/2013 18:59

With every passing album, John Darnielle's brilliance shines brighter and it becomes more evident that "the life of the world to come" was a misstep in an otherwise great discography dating back to "the coroner's gambit" of 2000 (if not "full force gale" of 1997). That's 8 very good -to- great albums between 2000 and 2011 (not counting "the life of the world to come"). He kept up his dark tales and caricatures of small town lives, heartache and religious overtones on "heretic pride" and does so again on "transcendental youth". "Cry For Judas" with some cool horn arrangements is one of his best songs, along with "harlem roulette". (There are a few songs with horn arrangements -- the closing title track almost feels jazzy.) He sounds reinvigorated with an energy i don't recall since "heretic pride". His lyrics aren't as sharp as "heretic pride", but they sometimes crest as in this awesome quote: "the loneliest people in the whole wide world are the ones you're never going to see again". (AKA, he's as fatalistic as ever.) My only complaint is that darnielle seems to be rehashing lyrics from his grand, past catalog, but after putting out 10 albums in 12 years, he's bound to cross over his own distinctly-insightful tracks.