“Possum By Night” challenges us to consider beyond the first-take, surface level consideration.

Track: “Possum By Night”
Album: In League with Dragons (2019)

When I first listened to In League with Dragons I didn’t get into “Possum By Night.” I thought it was fine, but nothing on it clicked with me and I moved on. Based on the number of performances, John Darnielle loves it. That happens, sometimes. There are hundreds (thousands?) of Mountain Goats songs and they don’t all need to work for everyone. One of his absolute favorite songs he’s ever written (not this one) is my least favorite song he’s written and that’s a me problem. When that happens, I feel like I need to crack the code and understand what about it isn’t working for me.

The band opened the encore at this show with “Possum By Night.” That did it for me. It’s not that it’s significantly better or worse live, it’s that you feel the passion of the crowd that way. The band toured with a logo of a possum with a sword and had a huge banner of it behind them at this show. It’s a clear mascot for what John Darnielle wants to say with his characters — a possum is misunderstood to be scary, but really it’s a creature that just wants to “find my own way — and it was in that performance that whatever needed to be connected in my brain became connected. As with most songs I didn’t like, it was a me problem.

The band has several anthems for outsiders. “Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1” and “You Were Cool” are recent examples, but there are a lot. “Possum By Night” is another one, and a sweet one when viewed the right way. It’s also a lesson in thinking what a song might be for someone else. I’ve found that second layer of consideration to be worth it nearly every time.