In League with Dragons

274. Going Invisible 2

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Burning everything down isn’t always a bad thing, John Darnielle tells us in “Going Invisible 2.”

Track: “Going Invisible 2”
Album: In League with Dragons (2019)

You don’t need me to tell you what a two on the end of a song title means, but it is interesting that not all of them have available prequels. “Insurance Fraud #2” doesn’t have a #1, it’s titled that way because it’s the second take and John Darnielle liked the train sounds so much that he used the second take as the official one. That’s mostly trivia and most of the time the two is meant to show you this is part of a series.

The first “Going Invisible” is an unreleased song from Get Lonely, with lines like “but who’d smile back at a face like that.” John Darnielle sings very high on it, giving a distance and a loneliness to what’s already a sad song, and the character feels right at home on Get Lonely even if it didn’t make the final track list. The sequel borrows even more than the sequel songs usually do. The original chorus talks about breaking something and sweeping the pieces away. The sequel is ready to burn it all down, today, and sweep the ashes away.

“I’m gonna break something” is a small threat. It might be a serious one, but it pales when compared to “I’m gonna burn it all down today.” This is the escalation that comes with time, but it also reflects the different tone of the two albums. Get Lonely can be a difficult listen in the wrong headspace. The characters are dealing with real fear and they’re extremely close to the sources. In League with Dragons is John Darnielle revisiting his entire catalog, and, by extension, his entire life. It’s more palatable in this form. Not better or worse, but a moment that builds to triumphant destruction rather than the despondent kind.

254. Done Bleeding

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The Mountain Goats explore the feeling of moving through points in your life in “Done Bleeding.”

Track: “Done Bleeding”
Album: In League with Dragons (2019)

John Darnielle has called In League with Dragons a very personal album. It started as a concept album of sorts and those bones are still there, but the one-two punch of “Done Bleeding” and “Younger” that opens the album tell you it is something else entirely as a finished product. At many live shows during the album launch, the band started shows with the two songs that start the album, in order. That’s uncommon, but it makes sense here as these are connected.

“Younger” is a puzzle filled with references to other Mountain Goats songs and “Done Bleeding” is a story about what happens after that. On I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, a podcast I have to assume you’ve already listened to if you’re reading this, John Darnielle said the title refers to self-mutilation and the period of life after that stops. It’s a really compelling conversation, even among the other episodes that go deeper into song construction. The episode for “Done Bleeding” is interesting because John Darnielle rarely speaks this frankly about his writing, even on the podcast. He talks about the idea of a new part of one’s life where it’s possible to look at someone else that’s in a point you were once in and have difficulty relating to their situation. You aren’t better or worse off, but you aren’t where they are right now.

There are a lot of songs that dance around this emotion, but “Done Bleeding” confronts it directly. You are never really done with grief, with anxiety, with fear, but you recognize moments where you realize you have escaped something and hope that others who haven’t escaped yet find their way out. This is a song not about pitying that person, but about your own next steps and the process of moving on.