''In League With Dragons'' is the seventeenth 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 on April 26, 2019, on

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

. Inspired by

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

s such as ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'', the album has been described as a "partial

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

" with influences from noir literature.

Background

Indie rock band

released their 16th full-length studio album, ''

Goths The Goths ( got, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰, translit=''Gutþiuda''; la, Gothi, grc-gre, Γότθοι, Gótthoi) were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe ...

'', on May 19, 2017, via

. The album was inspired by

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. ...

's childhood enjoyment of

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

. After supporting

Jason Isbell Michael Jason Isbell (; born February 1, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is known for his solo career, his work with the band The 400 Unit, and as a member of Drive-By Truckers for six years, from 2001 to 2007. Isbell h ...

on tour in June and July 2017, the Mountain Goats went on a North American headlining tour from September through December 2017 in support of ''Goths''.

Release

The album was announced on January 28, 2019. The announcement was accompanied by a live streaming event on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

, hosted by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

. The band also released three singles from the album: "Younger", "Cadaver Sniffing Dog", and "Sicilian Crest". The release of "Sicilian Crest" was accompanied by an hour-long discussion about the making of the song by frontman

and podcaster Joseph Fink, on the podcast '' I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats''; season two of the podcast will ultimately consist of a track-by-track discussion of each song on the album. The album was released on April 26, 2019, on Merge Records.

Special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

s of the album come with an additional

7-inch record In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separat ...

, ''Sentries in the Ambush EP'', featuring two non-album tracks.

Track listing

Reception

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 ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77 (based on 14 reviews) indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Personnel

– vocals, piano, lyrics, composition * Peter Hughes – bass *

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 ...

– drums, percussion *Matt Douglas – woodwinds, guitars, vocals *Thom Gill – guitars *Johnny Spence – organ, Memorymoog, piano, Wurlitzer, synth *Bram Gielen – guitars, piano, synth *

Owen Pallett Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album ''He Poos Clouds''. Pallet ...

– piano, organ, guitar, production *

Dan Dugmore Dan Dugmore is an American session musician known primarily for playing the pedal steel guitar Born in 1949, Dugmore was raised in Pasadena, California. Influenced by the Flying Burrito Brothers, he learned to play steel guitar after Flying B ...

– pedal steel *Robert Bailey – vocal arrangements, vocals *Everett Drake – vocals *Jason Eskridge – vocals *Michael Mishaw – vocals *The Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra – strings **strings arranged by Owen Pallett, conducted by Oleg Kondratenko, engineered by Giorgi Hristovski with Atanas Babaleski *

Matt Ross-Spang Matt Ross-Spang is an American record producer, Grammy award winning Audio engineer, engineer, and Mixing engineer, mixer. His credits include such artists as Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine and Elvis Presley. Life and career Matt Ross-Sp ...

– engineering *Shani Gandhi – mixing *Brent Lambert – mastering *Elton D'Souza – artwork *Daniel Murphy – design

Charts

References

External links

Merge Records ''In League with Dragons'' store page
{{Authority control The Mountain Goats albums 2019 albums Rock operas Dungeons & Dragons Merge Records albums