The Mountain Goats’ leader John Darnielle is also a novelist and with the new album "Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan," playwright might also be appropriate. It’s a rock opera about a shipwreck and the men who survive on an deserted island.
To make it even more theatrical, Lin-Manuel Miranda the artist behind Hamilton, contributes backing vocals to handful of songs. Multi-instrumentalist, Matt Douglas of the Mountain Goats imbue the songs with impressive string and woodwind arrangements and Tommy Stinson of The Replacements play bass on some of the songs.
Darneille says "A great good day to all who sail the treacherous waters of our broken world. We, the Mountain Goats, come bearing new songs. There were sixteen men on a fishing boat but only three survived the storm, and one of those went missing, and is presumed dead. That leaves me & Peter Balkan, whose health is failing as his apocalyptic visions dissipate in the spray at the shore."
To give away the ending, that no one ever comes to rescue them, is not so much a spoiler as it prepares you for the raw intimacy of the depiction of man’s fight against his fate. The Mountain Goats have given us many emotional narratives but the new album is one that is so complete it is just calling out for a theatrical production.