''Heretic Pride'' is the eleventh studio album by

the Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the ...

, released in the UK on February 18, 2008, and in the US on February 19 by 4AD, their sixth album on the label. It is the first to feature the band's lineup of

John Darnielle John Darnielle (; born March 16, 1967) is an American musician and novelist best known as the primary, and originally sole, member of the American band the Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist. ...

, Peter Hughes, and

Jon Wurster Jonathan Patrick Wurster (born October 31, 1966) is an American drummer and comedy writer. As a musician, he is best known for his work with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, and Bob Mould. He is also known for appearing on '' The Best Show'' with ...

. The album was produced by

Scott Solter Scott Solter is an American recording engineer, record producer, mixer, remixer and musician. As a producer and mixer, Solter has worked with numerous indie rock artists, including Maps & Atlases, St. Vincent, Spoon, Sarah Jaffe, Becca Stevens ...

and

John Vanderslice John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and recording engineer. He is the owner and founder of Tiny Telephone, an analog recording studio with locations in San Francisco M ...

Notes

According to Pitchfork, the album takes its title from

Aura Noir Aura Noir is a Norwegian black/thrash metal band from Oslo. Aura Noir is heavily influenced by early thrash bands such as Voivod, Slayer, Sodom and Kreator, to the latter they have also dedicated some of their songs. The band's main lyrical th ...

's song "Black Deluge Night" (found on their 2004 album '' The Merciless'') which contains the couplet "Soaring demons now swarm the skies/ In awe and heretic pride". A three-page comic book press kit was created for this album, with John Darnielle giving a brief text description of each song and songwriter/artist

Jeffrey Lewis Jeffrey Lewis (born November 20, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and comic book artist. Early life Lewis was born in New York City and grew up on the Lower East Side. He attended State University of New York at Purchase, graduating in ...

providing the illustrations. This art is not included in the album packaging, and was created only for promotional usage prior to album release.

Reception

''Heretic Pride'' received mostly positive reviews, with website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

projecting an aggregate score of 74/100.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

critic Maddy Costa praised the album as "13 absorbing songs, sparingly orchestrated to concentrate attention on the lyrics ..that grows more enveloping with every listen.".

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

critic Zach Baron awarded the album a rating of 8.0/10, and notes that it marks a return to earlier Mountain Goats albums, both musically and lyrically, and praises the album for its balance, stating "For every furious declaration, there's a moment of uncertainty." On the negative side,

Mojo Mojo may refer to: *Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * MOJO HD, an American television network * ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film * '' ...

awarded the album only 2/5, arguing that " e polished arrangements of ''Heretic Pride'' do Darnielle's songwriting no favours". Similarly, despite acknowledging that John Darnielle "is a monstrously talented guy,"

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

criticises the album for going over old territory, arguing that Darnielle "has covered every last of these inches before," and that " e lack of the sort of overarching theme that powered previous discography standouts ''

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

'' and ''

The Sunset Tree ''The Sunset Tree'' is the ninth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 26, 2005 by 4AD. The album's songs revolve around the house John Darnielle grew up in and the people who lived there, including his mother, sister, stepfather, ...

'' through their dull bits means that these moments rob the record of a lot of momentum and goodwill."

Track listing

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

Franklin Bruno Franklin Bruno (born December 29, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, academic and writer originally from Upland, California. He has been a member of Nothing Painted Blue since its inception in 1986. Bruno has written music criticism for o ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

* Annie Clark –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

Erik Friedlander Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City. A veteran of New York City's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with sax ...

–

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

* Peter Hughes –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

*Rachel Ware Zooi –

*Sarah Arslanian –

–

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

– additional

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

, mixing *Aaron Prellwitz –

*Timin Murray – assistant

References

{{Authority control The Mountain Goats albums 2008 albums 4AD albums Albums produced by Scott Solter