Revenge is a bit like eating an entire half-gallon of ice cream by yourself -- it may feel good in the moment, but you're almost certain to regret it later on.
John Darnielle understands both sides of the equation, and those emotions are at the core of 2022's
Bleed Out, the 23rd album from his group
the Mountain Goats and a beautifully crafted study of the joys and perils of bad karma. According to
Darnielle, he'd been watching a lot of thrillers from the 1970s and '80s when he was writing this material, and many of the songs brilliantly evoke that fleeting moment where the protagonist pauses before leaping into the maelstrom. He's equally conscious of the rush that comes with obeying that impulse -- especially on the roaring "Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome" -- as well as the darkness that comes in the aftermath, as in "Mark on You." Though
Bleed Out is primarily focused on the darker side of human emotion,
Darnielle never strays far from examining it all through the lens of classic crime cinema. These songs often take the familiar tropes of the genre (titles like "Training Montage," "Extraction Point," and "Need More Bandages" tell you what to expect) and dig into the thoughts and feelings of these standard-issue characters in a way that's smart and unexpected. Exploring the inner lives of people most folks think they know from their surfaces has been one of
Darnielle's favorite themes on albums like 2015's
Beat the Champ and 2017's
Goths, and
Bleed Out follows a trickier path but proves to be just as eloquent.
As good as
Darnielle's songwriting is -- and it has been consistently great for well over two decades now -- the best script won't work without the right execution, and
Bleed Out finds him and his collaborators at the top of their game. His vocals are crisp and impassioned at just the right emotional register, and his band (Peter Hughes on bass and guitar;
Matt Douglas on guitar, keys, and sax; and
Jon Wurster on drums and percussion) is nothing short of superb, filling out the melodies with taste, smarts, and force. As is often the case in a vintage thriller, the team has also brought in a secret weapon, in this case
Alicia Bognanno of the band
Bully, who produced the album and adds additional electric guitar and keyboards that boost the ferocity and force of these tracks. Some bands are consistently great in a way that gets just a bit tiring over time as they do the same pleasing thing over and over again. With
the Mountain Goats,
John Darnielle has created a vehicle where he finds ways to surprise the listener each time out, and
Bleed Out is more proof that he's one of the best storytellers indie rock has ever produced. ~ Mark Deming