https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bY0Vdo0z18

John Darnielle shows us two young warriors ready for blood but not sure if they’re going to go through with it in “Collapsing Stars.”

Track: “Collapsing Stars”
Album: Come, Come to the Sunset Tree (2005) and Dilaudid EP (2005)

“Collapsing Stars” isn’t on The Sunset Tree. It’s one of the three unique songs to the companion album Come, Come to the Sunset Tree, along with “High Doses #2” and “The Day the Aliens Came (Hawaiian Feeling).” They all share some DNA with the album and they wouldn’t feel weird to be on the main tracklist, but they are left off for a reason. My best guess with “Collapsing Stars” is that it’s a direct revenge fantasy and you already have “Lion’s Teeth,” which fits more thematically with the rest of the record.

All that said, “Collapsing Stars” is fantastic. John Darnielle’s delivery is sharp and crisp as he hits lines like “the grim particulars of poisoning the swimming pool.” These characters, who we know from other adventures on The Sunset Tree, are steeled to go through with a grim act. We have to infer why, but we know enough of this story to have a pretty good picture of it. The most interesting part of the song to me has always been the reveal at the end that they don’t go through with it. So many Mountain Goats songs hold the camera on the boats burning or the screaming argument or the dark revelation at the end, but here our young characters decide the best revenge is living well. That may explain why it doesn’t fit on the album, as that revelation would be doubled up with more space and a different sense of remorse in “Pale Green Things.”