The robotic drum beat and delivery on “Going to Malibu” turn an argument into a march to war.

Track: “Going to Malibu”
Album: Chile de Árbol (1993) and Protein Source of the Future…Now! (1999)

Chile de Árbol is not an easy listen two decades after release. The recording is scratchy and caries all of the “poor-quality-on-purpose” charm that the early releases do. Lyrically, it’s challenging and confusing. There are tons of Biblical references, a song about Billy the Kid’s magic shoes, and an extended discussion of the Easter Bunny that might be about the end of the world. We’re deep in the weeds in 1993, but there are treasures there.

“Going to Malibu” is the most “Mountain Goats” song on the album. All five songs have charm, but “Going to Malibu” is a direct address from one character to another about the state of their relationship. The relentless, mechanical rat-a-tat-tat marching drum sells a sense of unavoidable dread. These characters have to have this argument and it has to happen this way. John Darnielle’s delivery has a robotic quality to it that works alongside the drum. You can almost feel the fist pounding the table to punctuate each word in the chorus of “that’s not true // that’s a rotten thing to say // that’s a damnable lie.”

Your enjoyment of “Going to Malibu” may vary. It’s definitely a weird song, even for the early ones, and the delivery and backing drum do lack the raw emotion that makes much of the early catalog so passionate. For me, this song wouldn’t work any other way. It’s intended to be a battlefield by the use of “neutral ground” and the battle march aesthetic is a logical choice. Lines like “the thoughts that race around my mind // could fill a long unreadable book” are worth the sound quality, and if you can put yourself in the non-magic shoes of the narrator, you might appreciate why they feels like they’re going to war.