The new Mountain Goats album is called The Life of the World to Come and it is coming out October 6 via 4AD, according to an internet missive from leader John Darnielle. Recorded earlier this year, the record finds Darnielle working with familiar cohorts Jon Wurster (also of Superchunk and Scharpling and Wurster) on drums and Peter Hughes on bass, and features string arrangements from new friend Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy.
Oh yeah, all of the songs are named after Bible verses. Listen to new track "Genesis 3:23", after the jump.
Anticipating a intrigued response, Darnielle had this to say about the record’s themes:
"I guess the obvious question is going to be: ‘John, have you had some sort of religious awakening?’ and while I guess lots of people might want to be coy about answering that, that’s never really been my style, so: no. It’s not like that. It’s not some heavy-narrative-distance deal either, though, and it’s not a screed. It’s twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of. More than that I’d want to wait to say until some people have heard it, which won’t be long. Will there be more news soon, quite soon? Like, next week, even? Oh yes there will!
The new album from The Mountain Goats is out on 4AD on 10/6 and it has the theme of religion! It’s called The Life Of The World To Come. Less a profession of religious faith than an immersion in Biblical poetry and imagery, the songs on The Life of the World to Come take their names from verses that informed or inspired them, or which, sometimes, came up against them at right angles.
The Life of the World to Come was recorded across three studios with three producers, from April through June of 2009: with Brandon Eggleston at Chicago’s Electrical Audio; with John Congleton at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas; and with Scott Solter at Baucom Road in Monroe, North Carolina. Owen Pallet (aka Final Fantasy), with whom the band shared a stage in Australia this past January at the Meredith Music Festival, arranged & played strings. The songs find John playing piano more than he has in the recent past, although it’s the only instrument on which he has any formal training. As of press time, no members of the Mountain Goats had joined up with the Vineyard Fellowship, but do watch this space: there are stranger things in Heaven & earth, et cetera.