On a first listen, you'd swear the new album from The Mountain Goats [ tickets ]--a name for John Darnielle and his rotating group of backing musicians--is something close to cheery.

Melodies surge, strum and charge, while Darnielle's nasal, ironic-rock voice, mixed with strings or plunky piano, suggests more joke than deep thought. But further into the lyrics there's a very personal world not so bright: ghosts in closets, bottles smashed against walls, kids who cling to dance music to drown out family arguments ("so this is what the volume knob is for"), and adults combating "you, or your memory" with baby aspirin and wine coolers.

This could force listeners into Bartles & Jaymes binges of their own, but Darnielle's sometimes comical insistence on survival--"I am going to make it through this year, if it kills me"--paired with the folksy, marchiness of the tunes make them repeat-button listenable, not bogged down. In "Pale Green Things," he's even able to create an ode for the bully stepfather who's shown up in the darkest spots of other songs.

There's an echo of "Redemption Song" in the late-in-the-album tune "Song for Dennis Brown," and that's likely no accident: for all of their anger, it seems what the people in these songs really want is peace, maybe some dance music, and then a direction home.