The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain

Albums of the Year 2024 - Number 63

Taking my evening bus home, I found myself captivated by Tapir’s debut. On the top deck of the 135, I was wading through grassy knolls and stormy seas, encompassed by an air of the mythical. Like any good fable, this album offers an illumination to nuisances of life that no straightforward prose could achieve. Through its evocative lyricism, rich folk instrumental arrangements, and a vocal performance delivered with the upmost sincerity, The Pilgrim, Their God, and The King of My Decrepit Mountain gives its listeners a potent dose of majestic songwriting that can make a bus ride home a hero’s journey. - Adam, Rough Trade East | Albums of the Year So Far 2024

South-London-based 6-piece Tapir! present their debut album, The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain. The album follows a three-act structure – released by Heavenly Recordings as three four-track EPs – telling the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape of eerie forests, stormy seas and unholy mountains populated by beasts, injured birds and idealised eidolons. A fantastical offbeat fable carried along by Gray’s crisp, heartfelt vocals and the band’s instinctive, idiosyncratic melodies, the project at times feels like the musical equivalent of the paintings of Henry Darger, Henri Rousseau or Philip Guston. Artwork by Ike Gray.