Black Pear Tree, a vinyl- and tour-only EP recorded with the guitarist Kaki King, is one of the only times he's shared center stage. Her vocals on the near-static title track drag his lyrics around like a jail sentence. Dread's nothing new in his songwriting, but his verbal clarity makes vaguer emotions-- fear, for example-- a challenge. "I saw the future in a dream last night, somebody's gonna get hurt, somebody's gonna get hurt/ I hope it's not me, but I suspect it's going to have to be" is as lean as hopelessness gets, but it's not till later that Darnielle's verbiage blurs to a point where the words mimic the feeling: "And when its time came I could see it happen, blossoms black and sweet as Texas crude/ I saw the future flowering like a ruptured vessel, somebody's gonna get screwed"-- now there's doom to get lost in.
On "Mosquito Repellent", King chops at a guitar while Darnielle needles through a lyric about a hopeless, high-strung guy waiting for nothing in particular-- in a rare moment, she sounds freed from her virtuosity and he from his rep as the Mountain Goats, and they're collaborating. Her guitar performances-- deft, pinging adventures-- are strong enough to prop up a slapdash indie pop song, and the weaker "Bring Our Curses Home" and "Roger Patterson Van" get over by the grace of her playing.
They close with "Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is in Another Castle", which is about Toad, a character whose sole purpose in the original "Super Mario Bros." was to wait in terrifying darkness for Mario to arrive, only to wave him through to the next level. But the tail of the song bends to offer the same sweet relief that the Mountain Goats have always leant the used and abused: "When you came in, I could breathe again." Alone, hopelessly-- but at least someone's thinking of him.
Mike Powell/Pitchfork
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