Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle sings of prophecies, deviltry and heretics’ blood on the gentle, almost Genesis-like light rocker “Sicilian Crest,” a song off the group’s upcoming In League With Dragons LP. The song has a jaunty synthesizer part, flickering piano and skittering drumming, all swirling around Darnielle’s lilting vocal. You’ll be able to hear the song in the full context of Dragons when the LP comes out on April 24th.
“‘Sicilian Crest,’ lyrically, is more reminiscent of early Mountain Goats than anything since a couple of the songs on Heretic Pride — but [it] began life as an incomprehensible title in a notebook, has its genesis in playing around at the piano with my son while a Moridira Hurricane and a Fender Twin on standby stood close at hand, and ended up being a cryptically political dance number with shades of New Order or the Alarm,” Darnielle said in a statement. “My bandmates are going to kill me for referencing the Alarm in this announcement, and one of them will kill me twice if I don’t mention that the Alarm’s drummer’s name was ‘Twist.’”
Darnielle launched the song with a new episode of his podcast, I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, which he cohosts with Joseph Fink, who hosts his own podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. The new Goats season will provide a look into Darnielle’s creative process and will include demos for each of the songs on the album. The episode out today focuses on “Sicilian Crest.”
On the day the album comes out, Mountain Goats will embark on a lengthy tour. It will kick off in Washington D.C. and run into the fall with a mix of North American and international dates.