CD: The Mountain Goats, Heretic Pride

Anyone who has heard one of the umpteen albums by the Mountain Goats and been unimpressed isn't likely to be swayed by Heretic Pride. Frontman John Darnielle's voice poses a challenge to fans of tunefulness: reedy and limited in range, it's built for declaiming, and often sounds at odds with the emotion of his lyrics. But anyone who has surmounted that hurdle will be delighted to discover that the album represents business as usual: 13 absorbing songs, sparingly orchestrated to concentrate attention on the lyrics. All the detail missing from Darnielle's vocals is there in his songwriting: he notes the smell of onions in the house of Prince Far I on the day the reggae singer was killed, and the taste of jasmine in the mouth of the narrator in the title track. It gives his tales of mythical beasts, misanthropes and stock-in-trade characters failing in love a humanity that grows more enveloping with every listen.