Thirteen songs celebrating such small victories as real squalor has to afford, and championing either the merits of true friendship or of parasitism, depending on who you talk to about it. Anger, meet regret! It's nice to know you. There are no love songs.
On Mountain Goats' 4AD debut, John Darnielle strips his music of the tape hiss, opting for a clean sound that emphasizes the album's sometimes stinging, sometimes sublimely beautiful words and melodies - call it spite and polish.
