With 2003’s Tallahassee, John Darnielle broke from his ‘lo-fi’ past and recorded in a legitimate recording studio with a handful of pals who added the necessary accompaniment. For 2004’s We Shall All Be Healed, the sound becomes even more lush, strings poking out, harmonies twisting the melodies around. But no matter how much you polish a Mountain Goats album, it always comes down to Darnielle’s excited yelps and pleas and the compacted intensity of his lyrics. “Palmcorder Yajna” may be his most perfect short story yet, as it narrates from the mind of a meth addict the comings and goings of his friends and the narrator’s increasingly paranoid state. “Mole” observes a heavily medicated friend in intensive care. “Your Belgian Things” expresses the emptiness that occurs when life is permanently altered. “All Up the Seething Coast” catalogs a sugar-laden diet and the random, obsessive thoughts that it creates. “Against Pollution” channels the catharsis of retributive violence and the healing properties of religion. Darnielle is a songwriter of ideas and he never runs out of words or details to express them. Fascinating.