In League with Dragons
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| In League With Dragons | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 26, 2019 | |||
| Recorded | 2018–2019 | |||
| Studio | Blackbird Studio (Nashville, Tennessee) | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock[1] | |||
| Length | 48:22 | |||
| Label | Merge | |||
| Producer | Owen Pallett | |||
| The Mountain Goats chronology | ||||
| ||||
In League With Dragons is the seventeenth studio album by the Mountain Goats, released on April 26, 2019, on Merge Records.[2][3] Inspired by tabletop role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the album has been described as a "partial rock opera" with influences from noir literature.[2][4]
Indie rock band the Mountain Goats released their 16th full-length studio album, Goths, on May 19, 2017, via Merge Records.[5] The album was inspired by John Darnielle's childhood enjoyment of gothic rock.[6] After supporting Jason Isbell on tour in June and July 2017, the Mountain Goats went on a North American headlining tour from September through December 2017 in support of Goths.[7]
Release
The album was announced on January 28, 2019. The announcement was accompanied by a live streaming event on Facebook and Twitch, hosted by Wizards of the Coast. The band also released three singles from the album: "Younger",[3] "Cadaver Sniffing Dog",[8] and "Sicilian Crest". The release of "Sicilian Crest" was accompanied by an hour-long discussion about the making of the song by frontman John Darnielle and podcaster Joseph Fink, on the podcast I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats; season two of the podcast will ultimately consist of a track-by-track discussion of each song on the album.[9]
The album was released on April 26, 2019, on Merge Records. Special editions of the album come with an additional 7-inch record, Sentries in the Ambush EP, featuring two non-album tracks.
Track listing
All tracks are written by John Darnielle.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Done Bleeding" | 4:38 |
| 2. | "Younger" | 5:52 |
| 3. | "Passaic 1975" | 3:55 |
| 4. | "Clemency for the Wizard King" | 2:47 |
| 5. | "Possum by Night" | 2:59 |
| 6. | "In League with Dragons" | 3:11 |
| 7. | "Doc Gooden" | 4:19 |
| 8. | "Going Invisible 2" | 3:05 |
| 9. | "Waylon Jennings Live!" | 3:15 |
| 10. | "Cadaver Sniffing Dog" | 3:55 |
| 11. | "An Antidote for Strychnine" | 6:04 |
| 12. | "Sicilian Crest" | 4:22 |
| Total length: | 48:22 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 13. | "Sentries in the Ambush" | 2:48 |
| 14. | "Divided Sky Lane" | 3:38 |
Reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 77/100[10] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [11] |
| Consequence of Sound | B−[12] |
| The Guardian | [13] |
| Pitchfork | 7.4/10 [14] |
| Rolling Stone |  [15] |
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77 (based on 14 reviews) indicating "generally favorable reviews".[10]
Personnel
- John Darnielle – vocals, piano, lyrics, composition
- Peter Hughes – bass
- Jon Wurster – drums, percussion
- Matt Douglas – woodwinds, guitars, vocals
- Thom Gill – guitars
- Johnny Spence – organ, Memorymoog, piano, Wurlitzer, synth
- Bram Gielen – guitars, piano, synth
- Owen Pallett – piano, organ, guitar, production
- Dan Dugmore – pedal steel
- Robert Bailey – vocal arrangements, vocals
- Everett Drake – vocals
- Jason Eskridge – vocals
- Michael Mishaw – vocals
- The Macedonian Radio Symphonic Orchestra – strings
- strings arranged by Owen Pallett, conducted by Oleg Kondratenko, engineered by Giorgi Hristovski with Atanas Babaleski
- Matt Ross-Spang – engineering
- Shani Gandhi – mixing
- Brent Lambert – mastering
- Elton D'Souza – artwork
- Daniel Murphy – design
