John Darnielle explores the cult of fascism and how people come to it in “Sicilian Crest.”

Track: “Sicilian Crest”
Album: In League with Dragons (2019)

John Darnielle loves “Sicilian Crest.” He loves the words. He loves the song. He loves everything about it, which is never more clear than on the episode of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats about the song. The podcast is required listening for anyone who wants to really get into the band and how John Darnielle thinks about his creations, but this episode especially so. He excitedly yells the title over and over, selling it the way you’d have to sell it. It’s a song about getting excited for a really, really bad idea and signing on to something you shouldn’t just because of that enthusiasm.

It’s strange to engage with “Sicilian Crest,” a song about the pervasive nature of fascism, in 2021. It’s only been a few years since John Darnielle wrote it and it already feels so much more urgent. “All the talk we heard was true // the legends we all heard once,” the narrator excitedly tells us. They’re sick of waiting for a hero and they’re ready to believe this one, this time, is the one. They’re ready to look to one man as a savior, even though it’s obviously not a good idea. You don’t need my help to make the connection.

You can understand how this narrator wants to believe “everything’s new” and that this will work. You can understand wanting it, at least, which was John Darnielle’s goal with the song. It’s one of the darkest subjects possible and the grim reality is that there are millions of people who could be singing this song. They believe in a false past and a false dream of a future wrapped up in a cult of personality. You can almost see how you’d get there, as long as the dream was sold with a song.