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Band Of The Day #20 - THE MOUNTAIN GOATS "Sax Rohmer #1"

We hear a lot about literate music these days. So-and-so's band make literate folk pop, like we're supposed to be all, 'ooh look, someone who can spell the word 'melancholy' has decided to make a pop record', or something.

What we really want is someone who can really write the shit out of a song, and that's exactly what we get with The Mountain Goats. 'Sax Rohmer #1' is our breathless window in on the North Carolina-based outfit's fifth long-player in six years on 4AD, Heretic Pride, a song inspired by the English crime novelist and Fu Manchu creator of the same name.

Charged with palm-muted intent, the song is a lover's homecoming dressed as a starkly-lit pursuit, all wonky camera angles and long-looming shadows, and chock-full of images to reel the listener in: "a rabbit gives up somewhere, and a dozen hawks descend / Every moment leads toward its own sad end".

Download: The Mountain Goats - 'Sax Rohmer #1'

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Feature: Playing For Pride: John Darnielle speaks out on The Mountain Goats' new record

4AD website

- Alex Denney

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