“Unmasked!” may be straightforward, but there’s a deeper story about yourself that reveals itself.

Track: “Unmasked!”
Album: Beat the Champ (2015)

John Darnielle has only played “Unmasked!” three times, as far as the regular sources are concerned. At one of those in Los Angeles, he said “I hope this song speaks for itself and doesn’t need me to frame anything.” The first thing I thought of when I heard that was the word choice a director used for an art film that I saw recently that felt extremely obtuse to me. They said the central metaphor in their film was “obvious.” The two artists here are saying it for different originating reasons, but in both cases they want their art to speak for itself. They also feel like it does. In the director’s case, that comment makes the viewer feel stupid, at best, and it is hard to read it as a positive in any way. In Darnielle’s case, he’s saying he feels that any further digression just isn’t necessary.

That makes this entry a tough one, as the artist himself has essentially said that we don’t need to do this. In lieu of discussing the subject itself, I tried to listen to this one through the lens of a new listener. I’ve had some newer fans over the years tell me “Choked Out” is one of their favorite songs, even if they aren’t usually into the Mountain Goats. “Unmasked!” is on the same album, but it’s such a different song. The central mask metaphor maybe speaks for itself, but it takes until the end there to realize that it’s not directed outward. This one didn’t click with me at all for many listens, but when it did, I really appreciated what was locked inside. There’s wonder in that, even if the basics are, as the man says, obvious.