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Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan Image
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Lin-Manuel Miranda provids backing vocals on the latest full-length release from John Darnielle's The Mountain Goats that was created from notes about a dream Darnielle had.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Nov 19, 2025
    85
    Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan is the best Mountain Goats album in a decade, maybe even since Transcendental Youth.
  2. Record Collector
    Dec 2, 2025
    80
    Start casting the stage version now. [Christmas 2025, p.134]
  3. Nov 7, 2025
    80
    This music confirms the Mountain Goats have talent that's on par with their ambitions, and this album is a thoughtful, dramatically satisfying experience.
  4. Mojo
    Dec 9, 2025
    80
    A title that came to John Darnielle in a dream vividly interpreted as the score for a musical. [Feb 2026, p.90]
  5. Nov 7, 2025
    74
    For all the tumult of its premise, Through This Fire is a surprisingly pleasant listen—sweeping, mid-tempo, decorous even when the subject matter calls for chaos.
  6. Nov 12, 2025
    70
    It’s definitely a more expansive palette, and not entirely to my taste, but I’ll defend any artist who takes a chance like this.
  7. Nov 18, 2025
    70
    An unusually linear Mountain Goats record full of powerful moments that not even the eternally moving Darnielle can scrape into the whole it deserves.

See all 10 Critic Reviews