The Mountain Goats demand your attention and reward it with “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome.”

Track: “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome”
Album: Bleed Out (2022)

The closest cousin to me for “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome” is “Choked Out,” another song that demands you fight and asks you to push past the limits to get what’s yours. Both are what I think of as “explosion” songs, where they’re over so fast and push so hard that you can’t escape the emotional core of them and don’t have time to consider anything other than the feeling. Comment sections for this one are full of people saying they want to hear it live and to scream along with the chorus. The shared experience and the full band are both big parts of what make this work.

I think songs like this are what make the Mountain Goats a tough band to describe. Yesterday in the grocery store someone stopped me based on my shirt and asked me if the Mountain Goats are a band. I stumbled over the question of what kind of music they make even though I have written 150,000+ words about just that. Because what do “Wild Sage” and “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome” share, really? It’s that drive and that sense that you aren’t always in charge of the outcome of your life, but you can stack the deck if you push down the pedal at the right moment. Whether that’s in a quiet moment that demands you pay attention or a loud one that forces you to be unable to not notice, the Mountain Goats have a consistent message for you.