Get Lonely

212. They Are Stone Swallowers

Alex Russell Get Lonely

“They Are Stone Swallowers” is a brief diversion into the world of 4-track recording with an eerie feel.

Track: “They Are Stone Swallowers”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

There are three songs exclusive to the Japanese version of Get Lonely: “Naming Day,” “Keeping House,” and “They Are Stone Swallowers.” John Darnielle loves bonus tracks and loves stashing oddities in places where most people aren’t likely to hear them. That’s become less true with how we access and consume media now, but the old habits die hard.

On a recent podcast, John Darnielle talked with Joseph Fink about the phenomenon of not being able to look up lyrics to a song that hasn’t come out. In older times, if you didn’t know a lyric or you were curious about a song’s meaning, you just went without. Now, it’s much harder to remain in the dark. “They Are Stone Swallowers” is a huge departure from the rest of the album and it is the kind of thing that would baffle someone in the early 90s. You’d have no way to figure out why this is so different and you’d only hear it if you imported the Japanese version specifically at your record store.

The old days are gone and some of the mystery is surely removed from being able to look up John Darnielle’s explanation for the weird sound of this song, but we’re at least able to decipher it. John Vanderslice gave John Darnielle a 4-track and thus we have this experiment. There’s nothing really like it anywhere else in the catalog. The tech adds an alien feel to this description of very strange (but very Mountain Goats) events. Two characters notice physical changes in each other as serpents and an ancient sun invade the conversation. It’s mostly notable because of the experimental nature, but you’ll definitely notice your heart rate going up as the nervous energy sells the story.

163. Naming Day

Alex Russell Get Lonely

In “Naming Day,” a character locks themselves in their house and sets an impossible goal.

Track: “Naming Day”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

It’s fairly common for people to be drawn to a kind of elitism about rare songs. “You’re in Maya” is a sort of holy text within them, as it was the kind of song John Darnielle would only play when he felt like he could do it justice and it’s clearly deeply personal. As he’s aged and as the material has grown more personal overall, that list has expanded beyond just that one song.

This mostly describes the live-only songs, but the bonus tracks deserve the same considerations. “Naming Day” is one of the three bonus tracks on the Japanese version of Get Lonely. John Darnielle used to joke that he put the best stuff on alternate versions of albums because he couldn’t resist making it harder to find. That’s certainly been true in the past, but “Naming Day” is a strange song amongst the rest of the album, so it seems most likely that it got left off for more straightforward reasons.

The narrator locks themselves in their home and turns friends away when they come try to help. The idea of home as a prison comes up quite a lot in Mountain Goats songs, so it’s not surprising that Get Lonely has a few others. “Naming Day” extends the idea and calls anyone who would come to visit “automatically a suspect.”

John Darnielle sings a little higher than normal on “Naming Day” and it makes the narrator seem nervous. The chorus references Rumpelstiltskin as the character says they need to stay locked up until they can spin straw into gold. There’s also a very curious reference to the Mormon church. The whole thing combines to describe a scared, lonely person, but one that’s a little harder to understand than the others on Get Lonely.

153. Keeping House

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , ,

John Darnielle imagines a persistent memory that can’t be forgotten as a hungry ghost in “Keeping House.”

Track: “Keeping House”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Get Lonely is a breakup album to a lot of people, but it’s also an album about abstract loneliness. It’s both, fortunately, and either way it means that Get Lonely is difficult to approach.

Get Lonely has a tremendous amount of pain in it. If you ever get a chance to see John Darnielle sing “Wild Sage” at a live show where people will let the experience happen and no one is too drunk, you’ll see something you can’t see anywhere else. The rockers and the screamers are fun, to be sure, but “Wild Sage” will force you inward to places you may not want to go. Whether that’s attractive to you or not is debatable, but it’s certainly memorable.

Catharsis is really the point of the whole thing. You wallow around in songs like “Half Dead” and “In Corolla” and you come through the other side changed, hopefully for the better. It explains why “Keeping House” is a bonus track on the Japanese version and not an official song on Get Lonely. You need a slower tempo to wallow properly and compare to yourself, so the lively, bouncy “Keeping House” won’t fit.

It’s still thematically appropriate. Much like Get Lonely itself, “Keeping House” goes through the motions of trying to forget someone with no real intention of letting it happen. The character does all they can to stay busy and happy, but it isn’t enough. “So let all the lights blaze, keep your heart light // Play really loud music all hours of the night” reminds us of a time we tried to stave off a memory and failed. You should still try, but don’t be too upset when that someone pops up again in your head.

139. In the Hidden Places

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , , ,

John Darnielle introduces a character with bigger problems than a breakup on “In the Hidden Places.”

Track: “In the Hidden Places”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Many Mountain Goats fans refer to Get Lonely as a breakup album because it’s reliable during those emotional moments. Songs like “Half Dead” and “Woke Up New” hammer home the idea of one person being gone and the destruction that you go through when you face different realities of that fact. The rest of the album complicates that narrative, songs like “In the Hidden Places” especially. The narrator here might be in love, but they seem to be in no state to realize it.

The broader theme of Get Lonely is “abandonment.” The characters all are, well, lonely, but they feel like they’ve been left that way after something else. We find them in different states of grief, but they are all most certainly near or at their lowest. It’s not unusual for a narrator in a Mountain Goats song to experience something difficult and sad, but most of them have company. Most of the characters John Darnielle talks about are alone only in their mind as they try to share their world with other people and have difficulty.

“In the Hidden Places” is haunting. John Darnielle sings as high as he can over strings that create tension. The combination makes you feel cold when you listen to it. You can imagine yourself being near this narrator as they wander a town they don’t recognize. By the time they see someone on a bus you may be worried about how the interaction will go. The narrator is crippled by fear at this would-be lover or would-be friend, and the distinction doesn’t matter. This person isn’t ready for any kind of interaction, romantic or otherwise, and that kind of solitude is the hardest kind to escape.

127. Half Dead

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13XKCyzj4Eg

“Half Dead” is there for you when you need it, though you definitely don’t ever want to need it.

Track: “Half Dead”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Get Lonely is about solitude and the emotions that accompany it. It’s a fragile album that is unlikely to connect with you if you listen to it in a good mood. “If You See Light” is the closest to an “upbeat” song on the album, even though you’ll see couples swaying peacefully to “Woke Up New” at live shows. John Darnielle says he’s surprised that people say the album is about a breakup, but that seems to be the general consensus. A breakup is the most obvious and repeatable way loneliness shows up for most people. The songs on Get Lonely aren’t all directly about a breakup, but they’re about how you feel when someone (or everyone) is gone.

A lot of the early catalog looks at antagonistic lovers or conflict between unknown parties, but Get Lonely looks at the aftermath. It’s not totally new ground for the band, but John Darnielle really lets his guard down all across Get Lonely. “Wild Sage” in particular is chilling and absolutely the best song at every live show because you can feel how much he loves it. Get Lonely is a nice bridge between the autobiographical The Sunset Tree and the explosive Heretic Pride, but you need to be open to approach it.

“Half Dead” is about someone being gone. It’s a straightforward song about the morning someone you love and need is no longer there for you. They may be dead or they may be just gone, but there’s a totality to “Half Dead” that makes the distinction not important. The narrator goes outside and wails “what are the years we gave each other ever gonna be worth?” In a different tone or a different song that might be an angry line, but here it feels like an admission of defeat.