Dealing with pain and tragedy through music can be a therapeutic and cleansing experience.

However, an artist must realize the tricks of the trade. Do not sound self-indulgent. Do not sound cliché. These attributes will alienate the listener.

John Darnielle utilizes this power of music as therapy and makes sure to avoid the pitfalls. The Mountain Goats, his latest album, deals with the abuse he encountered from his stepfather as a child.

Songs littered with fear, naïveté, determination and hope fill “The Sunset Tree” to create an uplifting narrative of adolescence.

Darnielle’s acute observations steer the way from his confused but stubborn youth on the beginning of the album to his reflective later days. He is able to describe those painfully familiar experiences of youth on songs such as “This Year,” where he recalls early misdirected frustration. “I played video games in a drunken haze/I was 17 years young/Hurt my knuckles punching the machines/The taste of Scotch rich on my tongue.”

Production by John Vanderslice allows these indie-folk songs to breathe with a soft and endearing quality.

Few artists are able to recount so many feelings from their past and arrange them in such a fascinating and successful album.