Back in our July edition of Bright Sparks we featured a track by Mount Goldie, the project of Portland, Oregon’s Clint Snow. Back then we said Mount Goldie had an album in the pipeline, and now All My Friends are Mothers is out in the world, so we thought we’d write a few more words about why you should check it out.
The album begins with ‘Isla Blake’ a song that builds from delicate vocals and reserved guitar to confident drums and a big, spacious final third, all buzzing guitar effects and a sense of decisive direction. It’s the first example of how Mount Goldie is able to deal in both the macro and the micro, switching from slow, poignant introspection to electric indie rock, often in the space of one song.
By comparison the start of ‘Blue Green’ feels wrapped in a murky malaise, periods of negative space between lines and notes charged with feeling. This only serves to make the cathartic finale all the more effective when it ultimately arrives, snarling guitar and rolling percussion puncturing the fog as Snow repeats the mantra-like line “it could be all about me”.
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‘Not A Demon’ is an unhurried folk-tinged song that is almost reminiscent of Friendship, while ‘Breathe Baby Breathe’ slows things down even further, and ‘Out in the Streets’ builds with a warm and golden glow. There’s a gentle sort of hope here, the kind exclusive to those that rise at dawn and venture out before the rest of the world, finding a previously absent fondness in the closed curtains and empty streets.
As we described in Bright Sparks, ‘Summer’ is a song perfect for long humid August days. “Building slowly with a sense of weight, the track has sense of stifling summer stillness, a lack of movement that becomes oppressive, as though rising toward some sudden break, though never quite coming to anything.” This is followed by the hushed closing track ‘Spring’, with its patient guitar and murmured vocals, creating an atmosphere insular and enclosed, as if Snow is sitting right next to you in a small and dimly lit room. “You can’t ignore it,” he sings, “the sweet sweet smell of spring.”
All My Friends are Mothers is out now and you can get it on LP or download from the Mount Goldie Bandcamp page.
