“Only One Way” finds Jenny confronting the challenge of what is in front of her and the odds against her.

Track: “Only One Way”
Album: Jenny From Thebes

It would be ridiculous to call it a “new thing” that the Mountain Goats are celebrating the downtrodden and forgotten, but there’s a specific type of character that is celebrated these days in a Goats song that wasn’t always the center of the story. “Only One Way” asks us to look at the people who take battle damage and scars from their experiences and wonder if the path to get to that moment might not be worth it. It has a lot to do with songs from the last few albums in that regard.

“Nobody’s going to hand you a flashlight // you’re going to have to steal what you need” is certainly not new territory. What makes this new, to me, is that it resolves. Instead of just someone going down in flames here, we find someone, likely Jenny, confronted with the question of if there truly is only one way through or not. Do you have to do it that one way? Can you maybe break the loop and find some way to do something everyone says is impossible? It’s important for the narrative to have that spark, even if you may not have as specific a moment as this when you find yours.