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Nov 6, 2012Matthew E. White's horn charts are the musical development Darnielle has in store for us. But the dealmaker is Jon Wurster's spare, inescapable drumming.
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Oct 22, 2012What you find in Transcendental Youth aren't answers to any big questions, but instead questions to a bunch of answers that never meant anything before but now seem exceedingly important.
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Oct 2, 2012It's another perfectly observed collection of songs made real by Darnielle's deceptively plainspoken poetry.
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Nov 1, 2012A sense of quiet triumph pervades: this may be the prettiest Mountain Goats album yet.
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Alternative PressOct 19, 2012Darnielle still ties this album up under a loose theme, but it is a bold, Cinemascope-like vision of social and religious outcasts. [Nov 2012, p.92]
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Oct 19, 2012Darnielle [is] a songwriter still worth paying attention to.
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Oct 18, 2012The brass-orchestral ups and downs make Transcendental Youth an easier trajectory of peaks and valleys than the flatter, subtler All Eternals Deck.
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MagnetOct 10, 2012An uneasy gamut of emotion imbues another exceptional Mountain Goats effort. [No. 92, p.51]
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Oct 8, 2012The band used to simply propel Mr. Darnielle's succinct melodies and his friendly but insistent voice; now it has finer calibrations.
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Oct 5, 2012The band's interplay has grown both more varied and intuitive.
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Oct 4, 2012It is an unlikely collection of absolute pop anthems, more so than most Mountain Goats albums.
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Oct 4, 2012They may not be particularly youthful anymore, but there's plenty of transcendence to be found on this record.
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Oct 4, 2012It's perennially refreshing to hear the work of someone who so obviously does not care what critics think of him; Darnielle's music reliably gives you the world from his eyes.
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Oct 3, 2012If Transcendental Youth is the best thing Darnielle's ever done, it's only because it's about five per cent tighter and better-played.
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UncutOct 2, 2012This album pursues a theme of escape from the more lurid temptations of early adulthood, and Darnielle locates an aptly urgent yet reflective tone. [Nov 2012, p.79]
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Oct 1, 2012His unique literary view into both the banal and the horrific mix with the most interesting and developed arrangement of any Mountain Goats album and the result is some of the strongest, most compelling work of an already brilliant run.
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Oct 1, 2012This is another hyper-energized, beautifully crafted album by the Mountain Goats.
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Oct 2, 2012Darnielle finds equal grains of humanity and empathy in people crouched in the darkest corners and blinded by the brightest spotlights. It's not spirituality, escapism, or even optimism, exactly, that he's espousing--all you know is it's some kind of light.
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Oct 4, 2012With Transcendental Youth, the Mountain Goats have proven that they're more than capable of engaging us with even without the unimpeachable witticisms of their frontman.
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Oct 2, 2012Joined by bassist Peter Hughes and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, Darnielle's brilliant, pointed lyrics are reaching a new audience.
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Oct 8, 2012Transcendental Youth, despite its frequent use of a punchy horn section, is bleak, even by Darnielle's standards. It's also one of the band's best.
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Oct 3, 2012Fortunately, Darnielle's writing usually carries it, grounding his songs to keep them memorable and offer entryways back into something that continually seeks the transcendence its title suggests.
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Oct 15, 2012Slightly predictable, but the work of master craftsmen.
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Oct 8, 2012Though [the songs on Transcendental Youth] may not reach the highs of past songs like Damn These Vampires from last year's All Eternals Deck or Family Happiness from The Coroner's Gambit, there is still plenty here for fans of The Mountain Goats to sink their teeth into.
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Oct 5, 2012An album full of characters struggling against dead-end jobs, drug addiction and depression doesn't exactly sound inviting, but in the hands of John Darnielle, it's magic.
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Oct 2, 2012Transcendental Youth, Darnielle's strident delivery and all, can be an exercise in sadomasochism, but at times a very rich one. Still, Darnielle seems willing to walk over coals that most of us would rather experience secondhand.
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Oct 1, 2012On the whole, though, call Transcendental Youth a stumble and wait for the next Mountain Goats release next year.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 19
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Mixed: 2 out of 19
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Negative: 1 out of 19
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Oct 14, 2012