Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan by The Mountain Goats

Car Seat Headrest’s concept album The Scholars (at #8) was built on a dream-like, convoluted story that you could easily disregard and still love the music. In stark contrast, the concept album here at #7, the fantastic 23rd (!) album from Claremont, California-via-Durham, North Carolina stalwarts The Mountain Goats, is grounded in a linear, easy-to-follow narrative that is so present in the lyrics and up-front in the vocal arrangement that it is impossible to separate from the music. Neither album should be considered lesser to the other, nor an “incorrect” way to create a concept album — if the idea of “concept album” were a spectrum, Scholars would be on one end and Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan on the other.

The name “Peter Balkan” came to John Darnielle, The Mountain Goats’ lead singer/songwriter, in a dream, along with the album title. The story starts with a fishing boat carrying 16 men sinking in a rough storm, leaving the three survivors (the narrator, Peter Balkan, and us – the listener) stranded on a beach. “Cold at Night” (featured in the video above) tells the story of them immediately after the ship has gone down, making their way to shore. The next few songs bring us, rhyming couplet after rhyming couplet, through the travails of the trio over the next few days. The other video from the album, for the song “Armies of the Lord,” has our crew nearing the end and thinking of those lost. By the song after that, “Your Glow,” Peter Balkan has “disappeared” (died?) and we (the listener) are “well on our way.” The last song in the story, “Broken to Begin With,” sings of the demise of our narrator, bittersweetly repeating the empowering refrain started in “Cold at Night”: “The first thing you learn is how far you can go with no gas in the tank / And the next thing you learn is how cold it can get at night.”

In spite of the obvious recency bias, I have no qualms saying that Peter Balkan is my favorite Mountain Goats album. Two previous albums of theirs, Beat the Champ and Transcendental Youth have featured on the Top 31 (#24 in 2015 and #19 in 2012, respectively), but they don’t hold a candle to this epic tale of oceanic demise. Overall, there are better Mountain Goats songs scattered throughout their 35 year history than any one song on this latest album, but when taken on the whole no other Mountain Goats album comes close.

But The Mountain Goats aren’t for everyone. The driving force behind the band is John Darnielle, who started the “band” on his own, releasing his first album (just his voice and his guitar) — recorded direct-to-cassette on a Panasonic boom box — in 1991. Darnielle has an amazing way with words (The New Yorker called him “America's best non-hip-hop lyricist” in 2005) and a singing voice that is more “middle-class caucasian” than “melodic.” But his lyricism and consistent output has given him a cult-like following in the ensuing 3+ decades.

Peter Balkan is the most orchestral the Goats have ever been, giving the album a “Broadway Original Recording” vibe. Strings, horns, and backing vocals by none other than Lin-Manuel Miranda (on four songs, including “Cold at Night” above) all feature prominently throughout. Tommy Stinson, bassist from the seminal The Replacements, features on my two favorite tracks as well, “Cold at Night” and “Dawn of Revelation.” You can get a great sense of everything working seamlessly together (with Miranda replaced by two female backup singers) on the band’s performance of “Cold at Night” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from December.

Like Cheekface (at #13), it’s impossible to not smile and get pumped up watching Darnielle perform. He is not your typical lead singer, I would not call him graceful, but he is so god damn earnest. It’s clear he is doing exactly what he should be doing in life, and we’re all lucky to have him. If you’re unfamiliar with The Mountain Goats, give Peter Balkan a shot. Don’t give up after one or two songs – give it a full, undivided listen. If it’s still not for you, rest assured you gave it your all, and that’s fine because it means there will be one less person to be fighting over a seat with next time they come to town.