The duality of The Mountain Goats’ new album captures pandemic woes
Getting Into Knives, released Oct. 23, is the second album in 2020 by The Mountain Goats, an indie band that’s been producing music since the ‘90s. Despite the macabre album title and dark lyricism, the soundscape it offers is lush and largely light-hearted. It’s the kind of music you could listen to on a Sunday morning, sleepy but relaxed as you tap your foot along to some easy beats. In its tracklist of 13 songs, Getting Into Knives is one part comforting and one part regretful in just the right ways, managing to be both timely and catchy.
When the pandemic initially hit, it was uncommon for artists to release new media, but the few that did received widespread attention — Fiona Apple and The Mountain Goats among them. With Songs for Pierre Chuvin though, I was disappointed in the return to the simple and lo-fi roots that originally marked the start of lead musician John Darnielle’s career. Then I remembered that, more accurately, I hadn’t particularly enjoyed any Mountain Goats’ album since Tallahassee in 2002. Tallahassee was an indie rock powerhouse that boasted the band’s debut in a “real” studio. (Previously, Darnielle opted to record on cassettes.) It had a cohesive, dark theme, and the dysfunctional cult anthem “No Children.” While Tallahassee arguably remains one of their best works, Getting Into Knives manages not to be easily overshadowed by past albums, still proving itself deserving of attention and praise for its production quality, attention to detail, and a strong narrative.
The “No Children” of Getting Into Knives — that is to say the strongest and most memorable song — is “Picture Of My Dress.” Inspired by a tweet that entertains the idea of a woman coping with divorce by traveling across country in her wedding dress, the lyrics are charming and down-to-earth, putting a smile on the face of listeners as Darnielle sings about half-eaten sandwiches: “I eat half my crispy chicken club / I get extra mayonnaise, it’s a mess / I take the other half out to the parking lot with me.” Its heart and rawness, though, comes from lines of regret that serve as a stark reminder that the narrator isn’t just taking nostalgic pictures of her wedding dress for fun, but instead “[chasing] down the remnants / Of something special that you stole from me / It may be hiding in the sunset … / Or maybe it’s gone.”
Similarly, other songs offer a powerful sense of story, although they tend to lean on the darker side. The album ends with the titular song, “Getting Into Knives,” where the speaker laments the loss of a home to arson and subsequently promises revenge. The narrative, like others on the album, is straightforward but poetic, with ominous lines like “You can’t give me back what you’ve taken / But you can give me something that’s almost as good.” They’re also open-ended, with one reviewer offering the idea that the song could be interpreted as either man vs. man or, more abstractly, as man vs. God.
The idea of the narrator holding resentment toward God is an interesting one, especially given the worldwide circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bad things happen, often with little reason, and it’s up to us to cope and strive to find the meaning behind our suffering. For some, that could understandably result in resentment toward a higher power or pent-up anxiety, which many are collectively facing right now.
Instrumentally though, Getting Into Knives offers a balm for the uncertainty of a worldwide pandemic, counteracting its darker themes with a surprising selection of cheerier tunes like “Corsican Mastiff Stride” and “Pez Dorado.” These tracks opt for quicker, snappier drums and guitar, sometimes including a lilting synth beat, or, alternatively, slow things down in a lazy, relaxed way. Maintaining an instrumental cohesiveness, the album as a whole makes use of only a select number of instruments and Darnielle’s distinctive voice, per the band’s usual.
Notably, the pacing of Getting Into Knives is also well thought out, showing an impressive attention to detail. Slower songs are seamlessly mixed in with those that are upbeat, allowing the album to retain your attention throughout. Overall, the album has a clean transition from its bright first half to its more somber and angsty ending tone, reflected even in the titles of later songs like “Rat Queen,” “Wolf Count,” and “Harbor Me.”
Getting Into Knives is able to reflect the bleakness of the ongoing pandemic while simultaneously giving listeners laidback, easy tunes. One track will have you bopping along to a beat, and the next will leave you analyzing the lyrics, contemplating its haunting themes. Getting Into Knives offers the best of both worlds for new listeners and longtime fans of The Mountain Goats alike.
Image: The Mountain Goats’ Getting Into Knives album cover (Merge Records)
Chandy is a biology major/chemistry minor who's been a staff writer, Arts editor, and Managing Editor at The Cascade. She began writing in elementary school when she produced Tamagotchi fanfiction to show her peers at school -- she now lives in fear that this may have been her creative peak.
