The Mountain Goats - Dark In Here - 2LP

2 LPs - Limited indie only blue vinyl

When the Mountain Goats got together in March 2020, it was to make not one album, but two. The idea was to again work with Matt Ross-Spang, the dashing Memphis wunderkind.

Matt pitched that they spend a week at Sam Phillips Recording, his home base in Memphis, followed by another at the storied FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a plan that dovetailed nicely with John's notion of corralling these songs into two complementary batches: one light, one dark. The Memphis album - "Getting Into Knives", would be brighter, bolder, marked by rich and vibrant hues; the Muscle Shoals album - "Dark in Here", is quieter, smokier, but more deeply textured and intense. And FAME legend Spooner Oldham is all over "Dark in Here" - any time you hear a bit of Hammond organ or electric piano chiming in without repeating a phrase.