| All Hail West Texas | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 19, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | 2001 | |||
| Genre | Lo-fi | |||
| Length | 42:02 | |||
| Label | Emperor Jones | |||
| Producer | John Darnielle | |||
| The Mountain Goats chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.2/10) (Initial release)[2] (9.0/10) (Reissue)[3] |
| Popmatters | favorable[4] |
| Tom Hull | B+ ( )[5] |
All Hail West Texas is the sixth studio album by the Mountain Goats. After the slight increase in production values on The Coroner's Gambit album of 2000, All Hail West Texas was the last Mountain Goats album recorded entirely on John Darnielle's trademark Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox until 2020's Songs for Pierre Chuvin. Similarly, it marked the end of an era for the band, as it was the last album by the Mountain Goats to feature only John Darnielle until 2020. The cover advertises that the album consists of "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys."
Several songs were written to appear on the record that were not included in its final version. Three were given away on the Tiny Mix Tapes website ("Song for God," "Warm Lonely Planet," and "Waco"). Darnielle said there was a full set of fifteen outtakes that he intended to release for free one day, but he destroyed them after hearing about the leak of Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg. It is not known whether that set included the three listed above.
In May 2013, Darnielle announced that Merge Records would reissue All Hail West Texas on July 23 of that year, on vinyl for the first time.[6] The announcement included a link to an explanatory essay by Matt Fraction.[7] The reissue includes remastered versions of the original recordings, seven previously unreleased tracks contemporary to the original album, and a new 1,800-word essay by Darnielle about the album and his writing process.[8][9]
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Pitchfork Media initial review
- ^ Pitchfork Media reissue review
- ^ Popmatters review
- ^ Hull, Tom (December 2013). "Recycled Goods (#115)". A Consumer Guide to the Trailing Edge. Tom Hull. Retrieved June 20, 2020.
- ^ Darnielle, John (2013-05-13). "Requiem for Red Southern Curl". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2013-09-20.
- ^ Fraction, Matt (2013-05-13). "Notes on imaginary extent, lost, deleted, and unrecorded tracks written, performed, recorded for or during the period of time in the life of John Darnielle that would produce "All Hail West Texas" not included in this collection because they are all imaginary". Retrieved 2013-09-20.
- ^ "Merge Records Store". Archived from the original on 2013-06-07. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
- ^ "Mountain Goats to Reissue All Hail West Texas". Pitchfork. 15 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-15.