John Darnielle has announced details of the forthcoming Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come, via the band’s website. The album, due for release on 6th October, takes its inspiration from entirely unheretical material.
In fact, each of the 12 tracks on the album is named for, and inspired by, a different piece of scripture. So, do we have a newly evangelical Christian on our hands, intent on delivering a religious studies lesson to the masses? Apparently not. Darnielle reassures his readers thus:
“I guess the obvious question is going to be: “John, have you had some sort of religious awakening?” and while I guess lots of people might want to be coy about answering that, that’s never really been my style, so: no. It’s not like that. It’s not some heavy-narrative-distance deal either, though, and it’s not a screed. It’s twelve new songs: twelve hard lessons the Bible taught me, kind of”.