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The confessional micro-detail of Darnielle’s minimal indie-folk songs – and haunted whine of a voice – remains stoically unchanged.
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Tempering his usually piqued voice and strumming with uncharacteristic restraint, Darnielle marinates in shadowy aloneness.
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Get Lonely is a record that requires multiple listens (itself a first) but which absolutely forbids them -- I've been unable to listen to it in one sitting after a month. Not out of its weakness or my boredom, but in its relentless despair and my weakness.
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What makes the largest impression though, as ever, is Darnielle's ability to build the most affecting of scenes from the smallest suggestion.
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Your lost loves will not come back, but the morbid and exquisite plummet of losing them will, and rare is the artist that can make such a prospect as starkly comforting as it is here.
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Entertainment WeeklyA languid, contemplative work with each song a heartbreaking story unto itself. [25 Aug 2006, p.87]
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MagnetIt's quite haunting. [#73, p.103]
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MojoThough his nervy, nasal singing style can occasionally grate, the songs are redeemed by his breathtaking lyrical precision and eye for detail. [Oct 2006, p.103]
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Every line is razor sharp and yet brilliantly descriptive.
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Though the tunes themselves seem unassuming, based on conventional chord progressions and strumming patterns, that simplicity draws attention to Darnielle's fine songwriting.
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Paste MagazineThis should go down in Mountain Goats lore as "The Quiet Album." [Sep 2006, p.82]
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So Darnielle doesn't sing about anger; he sings about loss, and in a way the results are as dark and brutal as The Sunset Tree.
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Although Darnielle's incessant lyrical urgency occasionally causes some words to sound too forced, it's these delicate, well placed notes, minimal piano tinkles and two chord strums that save the songs.
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Get Lonely sounds ironically their warmest, most subdued, least lonely effort to date, at least on the surface.
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The urgency and bone-deep brutality of The Sunset Tree may be missing here, but Get Lonely is a gentle, lucid and honest reality that works as a testament to Darnielle's keen instincts for situational observation.
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Q MagazineA laid-back affair clouded with melancholy. [Sep 2006, p.109]
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Rolling StoneIt's sometimes too somber, but Darnielle's persona--tender and slightly nasal, colloquial and commanding--keeps you listening. [7 Sep 2006, p.105]
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Get Lonely reveals an artist in full command of his craft.
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Get Lonely is the product of a tunesmith on autopilot.
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SpinDarnielle's signature frantic strum is all but absent, replaced by languid tempos and quiet full-band arrangements. [Sep 2006, p.108]
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Get Lonely doesn’t have the full force of any albums in the Mountain Goats catalog.
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The band's music sounds as sparse as ever, comparable only to that of Nick Drake or David Crosby.
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Goat devotees should be most satisfied with this addition to the collection, and the uninitiated could find worse places to start.
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While the depression accompanying a relationship breakup comes through, several tracks lose their quirkiness in the studio setting.
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UncutThere's a kind of redemptive comfort even in the album's bleakest moments. [Sep 2006, p.91]
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Under The RadarThere’s an odd sense of everything being so damn tasteful that you almost want him to overreach and miss some notes. [#15]
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UrbDarnielle displays a newfound glimmer of strength adorning his melancholic tales. [Oct 2006, p.122]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 22 out of 24
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Mixed: 0 out of 24
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Negative: 2 out of 24
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Aug 14, 2011
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PeterHFeb 18, 2007
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CablesFeb 9, 2007