Album Notes - Goat - Oh Death
Over the course of my lifetime, the bipedal meaning of the word "goat" has gone from being a term of derision to a compliment of the highest order. I've never been a fan of the latter, "greatest of all time." Especially when "B.O.A.T." was sitting there for the taking. Just use "best" instead! We can thank either Muhammad Ali or LL Cool J for this reinvention. Perhaps it's my lifelong experience mired in misery as a Minnesota Vikings fan that has made "goat" inseparable from its synonym for failure, but if such an acronym needs to be used anyway, give me "B.O.A.T." How does an aquatic vessel not better represent a person who is the finest at what they do than a goofy looking horned animal? Although, leave it to the Vikings to turn a boat into something else entirely.
Anyway, what the hell am I babbling on about here? Oh yeah, Goat. They're also a Swedish band. On their first release since 2016's
Requiem, the
mysterious rockers, if you can call them that, do what they have always done: make bizarre, engrossing music that is typically better with headphones, and probably in conjunction with illicit substances.
Oh Death contains the charm, for lack of better word, of their previous efforts, all unique, yet all so very Goat. While
Requiem was a jammed out 68 minutes, here the Swedes cover an equally wide spectrum of sounds in half the time. "Catchy" is probably not the best term for their output, but there is a hypnotizing effect that makes much of what they do impossible to ignore. Goat may not be the B.O.A.T., but they certainly are one of a kind.
