1 CD
When the Mountain Goats got together in March 2020, it was to make not one album, but two. The idea was to again work with Matt Ross-Spang, the dashing Memphis wunderkind.
Matt pitched that they spend a week at Sam Phillips Recording, his home base in Memphis, followed by another at the storied FAME Recording Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a plan that dovetailed nicely with John’s notion of corralling these songs into two complementary batches: one light, one dark. The Memphis album – “Getting Into Knives”, would be brighter, bolder, marked by rich and vibrant hues; the Muscle Shoals album – “Dark in Here”, is quieter, smokier, but more deeply textured and intense. And FAME legend Spooner Oldham is all over “Dark in Here” – any time you hear a bit of Hammond organ or electric piano chiming in without repeating a phrase.