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Mountain Goats fans aren't the fistfighting type, but when John Darnielle went from recording on a boombox mic to putting his shit together in a studio, a sadly predictable dynamic appeared: some people didn't like the new sound, some did; new fans; accusations of either disloyalty or elitism directed at disillusioned old fans.
I wish I were a good enough critic to verbalize why the new Mountain Goats albums haven't rocked me. I am, however, a good enough listener to be sure they don't. On the other hand, this Peel Session (four new songs, multiple instruments but not a string quartet or anything) renews my interest in the Mountain Goats about as much as one short recording can. I never thought Darnielle's shift to bigger arrangements was a sell-out, or a marker of artistic decline. I just didn't like most of the results I was hearing before.
