“Whole Wide World” is a simple look at a child in a tree and some contemplative respite on a really brutal album.

Track: “Whole Wide World”
Album: Sweden (1995)

At a show in Brooklyn in 2008, John Darnielle opened with “Whole Wide World.” It’s not a particularly rare or surprising song — the name of the “Everything Else” section of the band’s forums is named after it — but it’s a very odd opener. The Goats usually open with a ton of noise or an album-starter that has a natural lead in. “Whole Wide World” is a very quiet song from Sweden. It’s very beautiful and slow, with just one child in a tree and their thoughts as they deal with the cold wind and the snow. It’s very open-ended and tougher to break down than most of the character studies on other albums.

Sweden is a thinker. “Tollund Man” and “Going to Bolivia” have specific characters and their last real moments. “The Recognition Scene” and “California Song” are all-time greats that look backwards at love and life when things were either better or just different and it’s hard to say which. There’s a lot of pain in the “love songs” like “Downtown Seoul,” and songs like “Whole Wide World” can come off as just connective tissue between the more heartrending stuff. It can seem like just a sweet picture of a child alone in the wilderness, but Darnielle’s voice — almost a whisper, in contrast to the screaming pain of the end of the album — elevates it. At that show he played it in response to a scream for “Golden Boy.” It’s a big faux pas to yell for “Golden Boy,” and Darnielle plays its exact opposite. “C’mon, yell for “Golden Boy” again just so I can say no again,” Darnielle says. It’s not abuse, it’s a reminder that the Goats have wide range and that you’ve got to appreciate the peace just as much as the fury.