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Title: Where's the Energy?
Review: Sunset Tree worked in large part because the often careening and raucous arrangements matched the out of control relationship between Darnielle and his abusive stepfather. That foreshadowing made the quiet, catharis of Pale Green Things both a logical progression and very moving. In Get Lonely we again find Darnielle in an apparently autobiographical mood, but going from one languid arrangement to a similar next one, often with just piano and his falsetto voice, as he recounts a faltering relationship. Perhaps it's the staggering into adulthood, perhaps it's too much Prozac, but the pain and sadness is muted here and that's not all to the good. Make no mistake -- one should buy Mountain Goats ahead of about 99.7 percent of what's out there, but Get Lonely makes lonely sound a little more, well, dull than painful.
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