John Darnielle steers into Elliott Smith territory (though he’d tell you that’s wrong) with “Divided Sky Lane.”

Track: “Divided Sky Lane”
Album: Sentries in the Ambush EP (2019)

On the podcast episode of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats about the production of “Divided Sky Lane” John Darnielle spoke frankly about the production of the track and why it didn’t make the album. It’s a waltz, which is already a bold choice. It’s also a waltz with double-tracked vocals. “Elliott Smith didn’t invent the waltz,” John Darnielle says with frustration in his voice, but he says that any time you do a song like this and you use that device, you inevitably draw the comparison. Phoebe Bridgers contends with the same comparison but does so deliberately.

“Divided Sky Lane” doesn’t fit on In League with Dragons for a bunch of reasons. It sounds really strange when you listen to it with the other songs on the album, but it’s also about personal, possibly romantic, longing. John Darnielle rattles off every song and crosses them off a list of topics in that podcast episode and says that the album isn’t about that, so the song doesn’t fit. Both sonically different and thematically dissimilar, that’s how you find the cutting room floor.

In his early career, John Darnielle saved the best for the EPs and the international-only releases. He said that he did that on purpose out of some kind of willfulness, but that doesn’t happen now. The EPs are always interesting, but “Divided Sky Lane” isn’t better than any song on In League with Dragons, in my opinion. The vocal effect is creepy and compelling, but I think it clouds out the loneliness of the song. I’m sure many people disagree, but it’s always felt like a curiosity to me that I can’t quite unlock.