Heretic Pride

Heretic Pride is the eleventh studio album by the Mountain Goats, released in the UK on February 18, 2008, and in the US on February 19 by 4AD, their sixth album on the label. It is the first to feature the band's lineup of John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, and Jon Wurster.[1] The album was produced by Scott Solter and John Vanderslice.

Heretic Pride
Studio album by the Mountain Goats
Released	February 18, 2008
Genre	Folk rock, indie rock
Length	44:37
Label	4AD
Producer	Scott Solter, John Vanderslice
The Mountain Goats chronology
Get Lonely (2006) Heretic Pride (2008) The Life of the World to Come (2009)

Notes

According to Pitchfork, the album takes its title from Aura Noir's song "Black Deluge Night" (found on their 2004 album The Merciless) which contains the couplet "Soaring demons now swarm the skies/ In awe and heretic pride".[2]

A three-page comic book press kit was created for this album, with John Darnielle giving a brief text description of each song and songwriter/artist Jeffrey Lewis providing the illustrations.[3] This art is not included in the album packaging, and was created only for promotional usage prior to album release.

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	74/100[4]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[5]
Blender	[6]
Crawdaddy!	(favorable)[7]
The Guardian	[8]
NME	(6/10)[9]
Paste Magazine	[10]
Pitchfork	(8.0/10)[11]
Slant	[12]
Sputnikmusic	[13]
Twisted Ear	[14]

Heretic Pride received mostly positive reviews, with website Metacritic projecting an aggregate score of 74/100.[15] The Guardian critic Maddy Costa praised the album as "13 absorbing songs, sparingly orchestrated to concentrate attention on the lyrics [...] that grows more enveloping with every listen.".[16] Pitchfork critic Zach Baron awarded the album a rating of 8.0/10, and notes that it marks a return to earlier Mountain Goats albums, both musically and lyrically, and praises the album for its balance, stating "For every furious declaration, there's a moment of uncertainty." [2]

On the negative side, Mojo awarded the album only 2/5, arguing that "[t]he polished arrangements of Heretic Pride do Darnielle's songwriting no favours".[17] Similarly, despite acknowledging that John Darnielle "is a monstrously talented guy," Slant Magazine criticises the album for going over old territory, arguing that Darnielle "has covered every last of these inches before," and that "[t]he lack of the sort of overarching theme that powered previous discography standouts Tallahassee and The Sunset Tree through their dull bits means that these moments rob the record of a lot of momentum and goodwill." [18]

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Darnielle.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Sax Rohmer #1"	3:41
2.	"San Bernardino"	3:19
3.	"Heretic Pride"	3:43
4.	"Autoclave"	3:34
5.	"New Zion"	2:55
6.	"So Desperate"	3:21
7.	"In the Craters on the Moon"	3:32
8.	"Lovecraft in Brooklyn"	3:49
9.	"Tianchi Lake"	3:20
10.	"How to Embrace a Swamp Creature"	3:27
11.	"Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident"	3:21
12.	"Sept. 15 1983"	3:43
13.	"Michael Myers Resplendent"	2:52
Total length:		44:37

iTunes bonus track

No.	Title	Length
14.	"Toolshed"	2:18
Total length:		46:55

Amazon bonus track

No.	Title	Length
14.	"Last Man on Earth"	3:56
Total length:		48:33

Personnel

• John Darnielle – vocals, guitar
• Franklin Bruno – piano, organ
• Annie Clark – guitar, backing vocals
• Erik Friedlander – arrangement, strings
• Peter Hughes – electric guitar, bass guitar
• Jon Wurster – drums, percussion
• Rachel Ware Zooi – backing vocals
• Sarah Arslanian – backing vocals
• John Vanderslice – synthesizer, production
• Scott Solter – additional percussion, production, recording, mixing
• Aaron Prellwitz – recording
• Timin Murray – assistant recording

References

1. Darnielle, John. Bio Archived 2013-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. The Mountain Goats Website
2. Baron, Zach. "Heretic Pride review". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on 2008-02-19.
3. "Press Kit/One Sheet comic book by Jeffrey Lewis". thejeffreylewissite.com.
4. "Heretic Pride". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-10-06.
5. Allmusic review
6. Blender review Archived 2010-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
7. Crawdaddy! review Archived 2007-08-15 at Archive.today
8. The Guardian review
9. NME review
10. Paste Magazine review Archived 2012-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
11. Pitchfork Media review
12. Slant review
13. Sputnikmusic review
14. Twisted Ear review
15. "Heretic Pride aggregate score". Metacritic.
16. Costa, Maddy (February 22, 2008). "Heretic Pride review". London: The Guardian newspaper. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
17. Mojo Magazine, March 2008 edition, p.106
18. Hughes, David. "Heretic Pride review". Slant Magazine.