The first single to be released from the upcoming The Mountain Goats LP All Eternal’s Deck is "Damn These Vampires". I was a little skeptical at first approach; the amount of vampire bullshit floating around in today’s media septic system is unbelievable, so I was preparing myself for a "money pump" song: just because it has the word ‘vampire’ in it everyone will like it. Also, it’s the first single to be released off their now 18th LP. Their 18th … isn’t this where bands start selling out?

The first time I listened to it, I was looking for problems; I wanted to hate it, but I couldn’t. It is, pure and simple, a very good song; from the very beginning I liked it. It opens with a beautiful acoustic guitar and piano combo; John Darnielle’s vocals come in shortly after with a very Jack White twang to them that make you double-take, turn to Google, and research whether or not Jack White featured on this track (he didn’t - I checked).

There is a lot of melancholic Ben Folds-style sounds threaded into this track. Sonically it is very mellow and gentle, however, the lyrics also tell a story that becomes clearly depicted in your mind. This track is about life sucking because you’re surrounded by people who want to destroy you, but when you finally escape these people your life still sucks because you have to deal with the aftermath of everything they’ve put you through. The concept is a little emo I know, but it sounds anything but.

Very rarely do you come across incredible lyricists in contemporary music, but I have a lot of respect for The Mountain Goats for this very reason; they talk sense. In this instance, the question ‘which comes first; the music or the lyrics?’ would actually be valid, and more importantly the answer would be interesting.

My only criticism would have to be that the song seemed to linger at a steady volume and timbre for a while nearing the end of the song. This lost me a little; I needed something to pep up within the music to keep my eyes open. In this way the track was very same-ish and lost my attention periodically.

All in all I did like this track and I’m very excited to hear the whole LP when it comes out… shortly. I’ll leave it with a decent 7/10; it’s definitely worth your time of day.