The Sunset Tree

429. Love Love Love

Alex Russell Come, Come to the Sunset Tree, The Sunset Tree , , , , , , , ,

Through several painful references, “Love Love Love” tells a story about the complex ways we react to loss.

Track: “Love Love Love”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005) and Come, Come to The Sunset Tree (2005)

You do not get what you’re probably expecting with a song called “Love Love Love.” Love is a very complicated emotion that’s often made simple through artistic expression. John Darnielle is not interested in this approach, thus you have “Love Love Love.” The song is a dozen references, all difficult and painful, tied together as a story about John Darnielle’s own life. He’s said that it’s about feeling good when his abuser passed away. It calls to mind the “you died at last // at last?” question from “Pale Green Things” on the same album. You might want to be a person who can rise above, but it’s, as always, more complicated than that. Is it even wrong to take joy in a moment like that? Your experience may vary.

The Mountain Goats have played “Love Love Love” hundreds of times. I always wonder, when I scroll through a list like this of so many shows in so many cities over so many years, if John Darnielle thinks about the origins of songs like this when he sings them. You can tell when you see a song like “Spent Gladiator 2” that he’s in the moment every time. The Come, Come to The Sunset Tree version of “Lion’s Teeth” opens with Darnielle saying it’s a hard song for him to play. I hope, to some degree, that isn’t the case with this one. I don’t have the life experience Darnielle does, so my connection isn’t the same as his, but “Love Love Love” is a beautiful song all the same. It’s just one best enjoyed with a little distance.

428. Song for Dennis Brown

Alex Russell Come, Come to the Sunset Tree, The Sunset Tree , , , , , , , ,

“Song for Dennis Brown” isn’t really about Dennis Brown, but it references him to make a point.

Track: “Song for Dennis Brown”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005) and Come, Come to The Sunset Tree (2005)

The choice to pitch “Song for Dennis Brown” so high has always been an interesting one to me. I don’t think there’s anything to this, but the longest songs on The Sunset Tree are all ones that John Darnielle sings much higher than the others. You get a chance to sit with a song like “Song for Dennis Brown” in a way you do not sit with “Magpie” or “Dance Music.” There’s a lot of room to breathe here, despite the subject matter of a death from a collapsed lung.

Dennis Brown was a reggae singer who was held in high esteem. Bob Marley loved him. He was a legend, though I’ll admit I’m going on some recent research here and I’m not all that familiar with the genre. It’s easy enough to hear what people love, though. Brown’s voice is incredible. He died of an overdose that collapsed his lung, but you can hear that in the lyrics. There are a lot of Mountain Goats songs about famous people who died tragically and unexpectedly and you might just say this is one more of them. You might say that, though the self-insert asks you to go a little deeper than that. We’re in similar space to “Dilaudid” here or even “This Year,” though we’re asked to draw a slightly different conclusion. “We’ll see just how much it takes” is a threat, read one way, and you realize this isn’t about Dennis Brown as much as it is about what might happen if you lean into your worst impulses.

427. Lion’s Teeth

Alex Russell Come, Come to the Sunset Tree, The Sunset Tree , , , , , , , ,

“Lion’s Teeth” serves as a revenge fantasy for people who know that it will have to remain a fantasy.

Track: “Lion’s Teeth”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005) and Come, Come to The Sunset Tree (2005)

The version on Come, Come to The Sunset Tree opens with John Darnielle saying “this is a hard song for John to play.” You can hear it in his voice when he says it, but you can also hear it in the song. I don’t find myself coming back to “Lion’s Teeth” as much as I do most of the rest of the album. One of my five favorite Mountain Goats songs opens The Sunset Tree, “You or Your Memory,” and it’s largely about the same thing, if through a different lens and at a different time. The song that closes the album, “Pale Green Things,” is even closer to the subject matter, but it looks back at abuse rather than living within it.

I have to assume The Sunset Tree means a lot more to a survivor of abuse. Much of the album feels universal even though it’s written from a specific perspective. The songs of triumph could be about generic triumph even though they stem from one explicit place. The songs of despair, like the revenge fantasy “Lion’s Teeth,” don’t always need to be about what they are actually about. This is why you see couples swaying tenderly to “Woke Up New.” It’s what it is to you, not what it actually is. I find it harder to abstract “Lion’s Teeth” because it’s so explicit. That’s fine, of course, and it makes it stronger for what it is. As with many songs like this I hope that you never need this one, but I am glad it is here if you do.

426. Magpie

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5xWFaTdkvo

An intense metaphor consumes “Magpie,” a story about something bad on the horizon.

Track: “Magpie”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

I must thank the people at the Mountain Goats Wiki, who I thank often but should thank even more, for finding this article from Willamette Week. The conceit is that the interview asks questions about every song on The Sunset Tree in haiku form and John Darnielle was asked to respond. The questions find romance in “You or Your Memory” and John Darnielle asks, essentially, how they got that out of that song. In response to a question about if the narrator of “Lion’s Teeth” really pulled the tooth, John Darnielle tells them he learned to drive stick in a parking lot. The responses are genuine, but they are very John Darnielle. They also show how difficult it is to get off of “your” version of a song, which always reminds me of an old friend’s insistence that the cannibalism in “Golden Jackal Song” was literal. Maybe it is!

For “Magpie,” the question asks directly what the meaning of the magpie is, and John Darnielle says “only a traitor // undresses his metaphors // as if they were whores.” This speaks to a few things, but mostly it suggests to me that the point is that you figure it out yourself. Magpies, as far as I’ve ever heard, supposedly like shiny things and are easily distracted into thievery. I doubt that’s true, but it suggests a reference to someone that steals indiscriminately. There are some jumping off points there for The Sunset Tree that make sense to me, but I refer you back to the songwriter on this one.

425. Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrDJm_70BE

The heavy punctuation in the vocals of “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod” forcefully demands your attention.

Track: “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’d heard “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod” hundreds of times before the first time I considered the title. I originally wrote “there’s something about it,” but it’s that there are so many things about it. The balance is incredible, with thunderous percussion and guitar that would ordinarily feel too loud except that John Darnielle’s vocals are especially piercing. I’m sure there are people who don’t like that whine over “deep in the dream chamber” but I can’t imagine them. I think there’s a case to be made that this is his best vocal performance.

It’s easy to speak in hyperbole with the Mountain Goats. A few years back they released a shirt and series of stickers that said “I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats,” which gave way to the podcast of the same name. It’s a joke, but is it a joke? Hyperbole aside, I make the case for this as the strongest vocal performance not because it’s the best empirical performance, but because it’s so well suited to what’s happening. He grits his teeth and overemphasizes for impact. It feels like a series of gut punches, with that percussion like a tense heartbeat in the background. I’ve never been able to listen to it casually, it draws me out of whatever I’m doing. It’s really worth seeing live, as well. The studio performance here is crisp, but it gains another level with the drawn out last line as it bleeds into exuberant dance music. It’s the moment that you allow yourself to hope it can get better when all evidence points to the contrary.

336. Pale Green Things

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBla7yCx9Yk

“Pale Green Things” closes The Sunset Tree with an open question about how to remember a complex figure in your life.

Track: “Pale Green Things”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

It is a helluva thing that John Darnielle was willing to create The Sunset Tree at all. It’s common to call an artist’s work “personal” and that word applies to a lot of what the Mountain Goats make, but this album requires a further examination of that term. It’s possible to listen to much of the album without squaring yourself in John Darnielle’s personal experience, but that is not true of the closing song “Pale Green Things.” By the time the album ends, the journey through abuse and the challenges of youth has been through a number of experiences. It ends with a difficult, conflicted note.

The line that unlocks everything is in the final verse, where John Darnielle describes a phone call about the death of his stepfather as “she told me how you died at last // at last.” The repetition is important because of the implied question mark on the second part. How could you say it that way, on the one hand, but what if that’s the only way to say it?

This is the album with “This Year” and “Up the Wolves.” The Sunset Tree is largely an album about sad, distant memories and how they can be both difficult and important. It’s a wonder that he was willing to go this deep and that he was willing to share it. You probably relate to some of it broadly, which is why the general, fast, loud ones have been played hundreds of times and endure to such a degree. “Pale Green Things” is a song for one person about one time.

333. You or Your Memory

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

John Darnielle finds himself with dark thoughts in a motel in “You or Your Memory.”

Track: “You or Your Memory”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

You can look up the motel that’s described in “You or Your Memory.” You can piece it together from live shows and figure out where this real place is and go see it. I normally would defend you doing so as a part of connecting with any Mountain Goats song. This is the only case where I would say you don’t need to do it. I think you can picture it when you hear it and if you go seek to verify if you were right or not, you will only be disappointed. Trust me when I say that you’re right, you don’t need to go see.

“You or Your Memory” is a song that challenges you to discuss it because it is so self-evident. It’s a song about what it is. Someone comes home to a motel and lays everything out and has to make a choice. John Darnielle has said it’s a Hobson’s choice, a term for a situation where someone can either take what is available or choose to take nothing. It’s all a way of talking around the situation, in that the narrator is dealing with loss and isn’t sure how to approach the next day.

The Sunset Tree is about loss. It’s a complicated loss, a death where in “Pale Green Things” the narrator, John, even says “they told me how you died ‘at last’ // ‘at last?'” Loss is never easy, by sheer nature, but it is harder with other things layered on top. “You or Your Memory” is a song about the layers in yourself that you bring to how you process loss.

311. Dinu Lipatti’s Bones

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

By referencing a pianist who died young, “Dinu Lipatti’s Bones” shows us the difficult hopelessness of young love in turbulent situations.

Track: “Dinu Lipatti’s Bones”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

I don’t believe anyone could come to the Mountain Goats and “get” everything right away. You’d need to be John Darnielle himself or someone so similar as to be unimaginable. You need to be a scholar of multiple religions, an expert on metal and similar genres of music, a professional wrestling fan of multiple eras, and a half-dozen other specific things. You need to have seen about 30 movies that have no connection at all. You need to have read deeply within completely disconnected types of literature and storytelling myth.

There is less of this required for The Sunset Tree. I don’t know how many times I heard “Dinu Lipatti’s Bones” before it occurred to me that Dinu Lipatti must be a real person. He was a Romanian pianist who died of cancer in his early 30s, but was apparently exceptional, especially known for the “purity of his interpretations.” Why John Darnielle chose him for this song is unclear, but I think the tragically young death is relevant for an album about youth. The Sunset Tree both looks at what actually happened and imagines what could have, which is the same headspace you find yourself in when you consider a too-young death of a genius of their field.

It’s also about how you force yourself to one pursuit. Dinu Lipatti lived a short life dominated by pursuit of perfection at his craft, John Darnielle’s narrator is in love and cannot make it work. Maybe it works for now, but the “dark dreams” in the song tell us it won’t work in the end.

182. This Year

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , , ,

“This Year” is a song for every feeling, good or bad, and serves as a perfect New Year’s Eve anthem.

Track: “This Year”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

Where to start for a song about new beginnings? “This Year” is arguably the most popular song John Darnielle’s ever written. It gets played at almost every show and is a bonding experience like no other track. The whole crowd will yell the “hail Satan” or “I hope we both die” lines, sure, but people lose their mind for the chorus of “This Year.” It’s a time to think about either the moments this year that make the song relevant for you or the moments next year that will blow those all away.

It’s positive and negative, which is fitting for a John Darnielle song. Teenage John Darnielle plays video games, drives recklessly, and drinks to avoid the miserable elements of his life. He rebels, above all else, and finds some forward progress through that rebellion. “Lion’s Teeth” is angrier, but what is more triumphant? Nothing, which earns “This Year” a spot in every single fan’s top five.

In recent years, John Darnielle has started posting on Twitter on New Year’s Eve to express his gratitude and his hope that the message of “This Year” endures. This year, he mentioned how the chorus was a placeholder that Peter Hughes told him to keep. It’s simple: “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me.” No matter what kind of year you’ve had, as you look back on it, keep going. That’s the message of the Mountain Goats and it’s as good a piece of advice as you’re ever going to get.

074. Dance Music

Alex Russell The Sunset Tree , , , , , , ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEUvA9gnVcc

The crowd-favorite “Dance Music” uses two different sad stories to make the same point: you must endure.

Track: “Dance Music”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

The Sunset Tree is the true story of John Darnielle’s upbringing and the abuse he suffered from his stepfather. The album is filled with rage and sadness, but Darnielle has said consistently that the message he wants to convey is that everyone can survive. The liner notes on the album are uncharacteristically short and conclude with three lines: “you are going to make it out of there alive // you will live to tell your story // never lose hope.”

“Lion’s Teeth” is a revenge story and there are moments on The Sunset Tree (and elsewhere) where Darnielle is justifiably furious at his now-dead stepfather. In “Dance Music” he’s still in the moment. He’s just a child in the first verse when violence drives him upstairs to drown out his unhappy home with music. Darnielle has said his mother doesn’t remember the story the way he tells it, but the specifics aren’t as important as the world he describes.

Much has been said of that first verse and how clear the image is, but “Dance Music” has always been about the second verse for me. In live performances he names the woman who is “the last best thing I’ve got going” with the “special secret sickness.” He’s seventeen now and he can’t help Jackie. Both verses are stories of helplessness, but the first one is an external force (his stepfather) and the second is an internal one (addiction). They’re both high and sad and he knows this is a problem, but he doesn’t know how to fix it. The saddest element is the selfishness. What he’s really worried about isn’t solving her problems, it’s that he doesn’t want to die alone. The John of this story still has to get worse before he’s going to get better.