We Shall All Be Healed

1	Slow West Vultures 2:42
2	Palmcorder Yajna 4:08
3	Linda Blair Was Born Innocent 2:46
4	Letter from Belgium 3:11
5	The Young Thousands 4:34
6	Your Belgian Things 3:48
7	Mole 4:33
8	Home Again Garden Grove 3:15
9	All Up the Seething Coast 3:45
10	Quito 2:03
11	Cotton 3:25
12	Against Pollution 3:42
13	Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of 2:53

Barnes & Noble

John Darnielle doesn't believe in coloring within the lines. The man behind the Mountain Goats is notorious for leaping state lines and national borders within the lyrics of a single song -- usually by breathlessly inserting twice the recommended number of words into each stanza. The tirelessly strumming singer waxes as mercurial as ever here, maintaining the same quizzical, measured tone whether he's offering a laundry list of breakfast choices or coolly confessing to a killing an armed robber. Darnielle's grown a little less whimsical, a little more prone to soul-baring (displayed on the painfully longing "Your Belgian Things") and salvation-seeking (aired in the rosary-wrapped "Against Pollution"). He's also grown more open to playing with others -- resulting in contributions like the off-kilter piano that punctuates "Cotton" and the woozy strings that buoy "Slow West Vultures" -- without compromising the singular stance that he's held through dozens of releases. That off-kilter worldview is Darnielle's not-so-secret weapon: The guy sees romance in every patch of asphalt, danger in every alley, and poetry on every page of the Rand McNally atlas -- reminding us we could all stand to notice such things a little more often. David Sprague

All Music Guide

If possible, the Mountain Goats' We Shall All Be Healed is an even bigger, lusher-sounding work than Tallahassee, the group's 4AD debut and the debut of their more polished production style. Whether or not this approach is somehow less authentic or more invasive than the ultra lo-fi sound of John Darnielle and company's earlier albums is up for debate, but, as with Tallahassee, it's a choice that works well for this particular set of songs. In fact, the lush strings and pianos that grace the album only make Darnielle's relentlessly strummed guitars and unadorned vocals sound even more strikingly plain. On Tallahassee, the Mountain Goats used their newfound polish to emphasize the album's decaying Southern gothic romance; We Shall All Be Healed sounds bright and crisp, burning with righteous anger that is fueled by Darnielle's sardonic humor. Beginning with "Slow West Vultures"' rapid-fire acoustic guitars and snippets of forced laughter and shattering glass, the album makes full use of its widescreen production; "Linda Blair Was Born Innocent" is searching and sad, using touches of Americana without sounding hidebound to that sound. As with all of his Mountain Goats work, We Shall All Be Healed has a passion lacking in a lot of music that is much louder. Darnielle's high, insistent voice, punctuated by his relentless strumming, is particularly intense on the talky, funny "Palmcorder Yajna." The oddly rousing "The Young Thousands" manages to be atmospheric and direct at the same time, and on "Home Again Garden Grove" Darnielle sounds like a veteran returning home. The album's softer songs retain that intensity: "All Up the Seething Coast" is quiet and mostly spoken word, but it recalls the calm before the storm more than the coffeehouse. "Cotton" is a sad and lovely song "for the people who tell their families they're sorry for things that they can't and won't be sorry for," and the cryptically lovely "Your Belgian Things" allows the listener to piece together a tumultuous story from Darnielle's recollections: "I can see you in my sleep/Playing the points for all you're worth/Walking gingerly across/The bruised earth." As musically and lyrically accomplished as We Shall All Be Healed is, it's not quite as gripping or rich as the best of the Mountain Goats' earlier work or Tallahassee, but that's relative; on its own terms, the album is still profoundly smart and profoundly emotional. Heather Phares

Rolling Stone

John Darnielle has taken confessional folk music to angry new depths. Christian Hoard

Blender

Since joining cult label 4AD last year [the Mountain Goats have] adopted a crisp, unfussy style that assures the audibility of Darnielle's artful words. Mark Jenkins