Mountain Goats: Through This Fire via Peter Balkan Review – Shipwreck Songs from a Master Storyteller | music

COhne Darnielle’s penchant for the concept album led to the likes of Beat the Champ (about wrestling), Bleed Out (action movies), and Goths (alternative teen music). Now, Mountain Goats’ 23rd album – but of course – deals with the story of a small crew shipwrecked on a desert island where the surviving members, including Captain Peter Balkan, suffer “dwindling resources and apocalyptic visions.”

After the title came to him in a dream, Darnell certainly pushed the boat out to bring it all to life. Instruments include piano, woodwinds, strings, brass and harp, and the band draws from a range of genres including electronic, symphonic, prog and powerpop. It ends up looking a bit like the soundtrack to a fantasy musical as the songs follow a narrative arc – a feeling reinforced by the presence of Lin-Manuel Miranda on backing vocals. The crew sails merrily into the beautiful fishing boat (“Hot as the Violence of the Current”) and begins getting into trouble in “Cold in the Night” (“On the Third Day You Said You Felt Sick”). Darnell defiantly shouts “No one here will die alone” in Bombardment of the Dawn of Apocalypse and effectively writes their epitaph in “Broken to Start With.”

However, this is not a dark album. It is sumptuously crafted, full of gallows humor, and – as with much of Darnell’s best work – delving beneath the surface reveals layers of deeper meaning about humanity, togetherness, and the precious joys of life.