Item: Days
Rating: 8
Author: pastemagazine

Wavelength

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Days by The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice reviewed by pastemagazine — 8.0/10 | Wavelength | Wavelength

John Darnielle and co. revisit the 1990s, Layne Staley, and Charlie Sheen on a collection of songs that explore the rigid nature of time and our power to reframe the past.

In that respect, Days might best be viewed as a collection of touchstones (what Darnielle chooses to remember) and takeaways (how he chooses to remember them). Those glances back in time include revisiting the sad, final days of a grunge legend (“Song for Layne Staley”), a Hollywood A-lister’s moral panic over a fake Japanese snuff film (“Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds”), and a particular string of nights in ‘76 when English prog-rock band Renaissance played Carnegie Hall (“Annie Haslam Imperial Phase”). All of these are esoteric landing spots that would be left off most historical timelines, and yet if you string together enough snapshots, a flickering, rough cut of the times starts to emerge—a flipbook assembled by Darnielle himself. It’s a look back that offers chances to reinvestigate, reassess, and genuinely wonder how some of us made it out in one piece.

Fellow Goats Jon Wurster (drums) and Matt Douglas (a bit of everything) rejoin Darnielle on this mostly upbeat collection of keys, horns, and harmonies, the major-key sound often belying the darker outcomes being revisited. We’re more than content to cruise along with the top down to the smooth, highway-friendly vibes of “Crying on Eddie Nash’s Grave” as bodies are sprinkled across the Southern California desert. The old-timey ambling harmonies of “Going to Fennario” sweetly whisk us off this mortal coil before we know it. You nearly feel the need to spring out of your lounger in righteous indignation alongside a troubled Charlie Sheen and “rise to this occasion” as evil flashes onscreen in all its gory glory. However, nowhere does the conviction of Days shine brighter than on tMG’s emphatic “Candlebox,” an all-out rocker that playfully considers both the career opportunities and mundanities (“Together in the tents at the festivals / Running out of things to say”) of touring in the early nineties as the Seattle rock band’s opener. Credit to Darnielle for putting his own touring itinerary where his mouth is; the Goats are set to open two dates this fall for Candlebox.

As fun as it might be to put pins in the map as Darnielle bounces between places, years, and allusions, Days never allows us to forget that time marches on around us. The ironically gentle “Best Hard Rock Albums 2013” catalogs, as Darnielle describes it, “The earlier parts of the tunnel / Before you could see through to the end.” And these songs make it clear that said tunnel does indeed end. The delightfully boogying “Shallow Grave” reminds us that we don’t have long before we join those beneath our bootheels. “Do you know how short the days are?” asks the title track’s chorus, Darnielle assuring us that we’ll never truly be prepared to check out when the time comes. Likewise, the euphoric, gleeful-sounding “Last Day” lays out a menu of options for our final moments, yet it really promises only that our days are, in fact, numbered. So gather ye rosebuds, kiddos.

Both casual listeners and those who only listen to the Mountain Goats might spin Days and shed a nostalgic tear for a bygone time of boombox recordings or Darnielle adamantly declaring, “I am a babbling brook,” over what always felt more like a bedroom confessional than a full-band effort. However, these days, the songwriter and frontman is clearly comfortable yet not complacent, and content to shepherd his current herd of bandmates and fans alike on whatever excursion might pop into a dream or capture his fancy next. An album like Days isn’t likely to shake foundations like All Hail West Texas, Tallahassee, and Sunset Tree did for so many, but don’t be surprised if it nudges you to take a meaningful gander in your rearview mirror as the end of your own tunnel looms closer than you might think. [Cadmean Dawn]

Not all roads lead to a Mountain Goats record. However, after more than three decades and, by lead Goat John Darnielle’s own count, “something-something” studio albums, it’s safe to say that almost any road can lead to the band’s next batch of songs. For instance, 2025’s Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan began as a title that came to Darnielle in a dream and became a “full-on musical” about a shipwreck. The trio’s latest effort, Days, originated as a joke about a grunge-indebted sequel (Grunges) to 2017’s dark-leaning Goths. It’s a comical idea that, according to Darnielle, gradually morphed into an album “drenched in the past”—a meditation on both the rigidity of time and our power to reframe it—told in that wry, impassioned fashion that only the Mountain Goats can pull off. In that respect, Days might best be viewed as a collection of touchstones (what Darnielle chooses to remember) and takeaways (how he chooses to remember them). Those glances back in time include revisiting the sad, final days of a grunge legend (“Song for Layne Staley”), a Hollywood A-lister’s moral panic over a fake Japanese snuff film (“Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds”), and a particular string of nights in ‘76 when English prog-rock band Renaissance played Carnegie Hall (“Annie Haslam Imperial Phase”). All of these are esoteric landing spots that would be left off most historical timelines, and yet if you string together enough snapshots, a flickering, rough cut of the times starts to emerge—a flipbook assembled by Darnielle himself. It’s a look back that offers chances to reinvestigate, reassess, and genuinely wonder how some of us made it out in one piece. Fellow Goats Jon Wurster (drums) and Matt Douglas (a bit of everything) rejoin Darnielle on this mostly upbeat collection of keys, horns, and harmonies, the major-key sound often belying the darker outcomes being revisited. We’re more than content to cruise along with the top down to the smooth, highway-friendly vibes of “Crying on Eddie Nash’s Grave” as bodies are sprinkled across the Southern California desert. The old-timey ambling harmonies of “Going to Fennario” sweetly whisk us off this mortal coil before we know it. You nearly feel the need to spring out of your lounger in righteous indignation alongside a troubled Charlie Sheen and “rise to this occasion” as evil flashes onscreen in all its gory glory. However, nowhere does the conviction of Days shine brighter than on tMG’s emphatic “Candlebox,” an all-out rocker that playfully considers both the career opportunities and mundanities (“Together in the tents at the festivals / Running out of things to say”) of touring in the early nineties as the Seattle rock band’s opener. Credit to Darnielle for putting his own touring itinerary where his mouth is; the Goats are set to open two dates this fall for Candlebox. As fun as it might be to put pins in the map as Darnielle bounces between places, years, and allusions, Days never allows us to forget that time marches on around us. The ironically gentle “Best Hard Rock Albums 2013” catalogs, as Darnielle describes it, “The earlier parts of the tunnel / Before you could see through to the end.” And these songs make it clear that said tunnel does indeed end. The delightfully boogying “Shallow Grave” reminds us that we don’t have long before we join those beneath our bootheels. “Do you know how short the days are?” asks the title track’s chorus, Darnielle assuring us that we’ll never truly be prepared to check out when the time comes. Likewise, the euphoric, gleeful-sounding “Last Day” lays out a menu of options for our final moments, yet it really promises only that our days are, in fact, numbered. So gather ye rosebuds, kiddos. Both casual listeners and those who only listen to the Mountain Goats might spin Days and shed a nostalgic tear for a bygone time of boombox recordings or Darnielle adamantly declaring, “I am a babbling brook,” over what always felt more like a bedroom confessional than a full-band effort. However, these days, the songwriter and frontman is clearly comfortable yet not complacent, and content to shepherd his current herd of bandmates and fans alike on whatever excursion might pop into a dream or capture his fancy next. An album like Days isn’t likely to shake foundations like All Hail West Texas, Tallahassee, and Sunset Tree did for so many, but don’t be surprised if it nudges you to take a meaningful gander in your rearview mirror as the end of your own tunnel looms closer than you might think. [Cadmean Dawn]