“Heel Turn 2” shows us one way playing for yourself can turn out.

Track: “Heel Turn 2”
Album: Beat the Champ (2015)

The Mountain Goats debuted “Heel Turn 2” on Welcome to Night Vale in 2015. I still remember listening to the nearly six-minute song there and then taking it in live in Chicago a few weeks later. That show in Chicago was one of very few so far where the band played “Heel Turn 1,” a thematically similar song about another wrestler who makes a “heel turn,” or the appearance of making a self-centered play in the wring. The unreleased “Heel Turn 1” is funny, sorta, but “Heel Turn 2” is downright morose. The chorus is the difference, where it changes from “I, I, I’m not gonna die in here” as a stomp-along triumphant message into “I don’t want to die in here” as an uncertain, worried one.

“Heel Turn 2” also has a lengthy outro, which is a risk. If I had to pick a song to sum up the difference between “early” and “modern” Mountain Goats, it would be this one. Any fan from either era would understand the narrator who saves themselves and says “let all the trash rain down,” throwing opinions out the window and taking their chance. Those early folks might not understand the two-minute piano cooldown from “Heel Turn 2.” I generally love the evolution of the band as an idea, even when I don’t think it necessarily is exactly what I want in the moment, and I’ve really enjoyed the moments like these on albums recently. It’s not all quick explosions and mania, sometimes you have to wander around and consider the implications of the choices.