songs

401. Moon Over Goldsboro

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , , , ,

The stakes are very high and the mood is very low on “Moon Over Goldsboro.”

Track: “Moon Over Goldsboro”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

There is something very personal about Get Lonely. It may be that it was the first new Mountain Goats record when I first heard the band. I listened to this one new with everyone else for the first time and I digested it at a time in my life when I felt very much like these narrators. I was living in Peoria, Illinois, and I was definitely the kind of person who was “talking to you under my breath // saying things I would never say directly.” I am trying to keep this whole project from being explicitly a personal blog, but if you are interested in personal narrative mixed with the story of the Mountain Goats by a better writer than I am, Richard O’Brien’s personal retrospective should be your first stop.

“Moon Over Goldsboro” is about emotions that you experience and then hopefully move away from. That’s what a lot of Get Lonely is about, but this character is wallowing more than most of the others on the album. There are enough details to piece together the larger story, but we again only get one person’s side. There’s not enough here to know who did what or how much we should believe. “I heard a siren on the highway up ahead // kinda wished they’d come and get me” suggests that the narrator believes things to be beyond saving, but it’s also the sort of thing you say when you know it’s your fault.

400. Get Lonely

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , , ,

“Get Lonely” is about a much more intense emotion than we usually think of when someone says “lonely.”

Track: “Get Lonely”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Get Lonely is a brutal album. Each narrator, assuming they aren’t all the same person, is experiencing alienation and loneliness. These are people completely cut off from humanity. Many are lamenting a specific relationship, but the reduction of the theme to “a breakup” doesn’t quite cut it for a song like the title track. “Get Lonely” is about something much more extreme.

Sure, the narrator says they will “send your name off from my lips // like a signal flare” but it isn’t just about this person they are no longer with. This is about not connecting with the world at large. They talk about feeling alone in a crowd, which is an oft used comparison but used more literally here. This person actually is out in a crowd and recognizes that they are not like the people around them.

The ending to the second verse pivots towards hope, in a way. The narrator says “and I will come back home // maybe call some friends // maybe paint some pictures // it all depends” and we hear someone trying to dig out of themselves. We hear someone who knows the way out of the darkness, or at least one of the ways. What we don’t hear is a confidence that this will even happen. What makes Get Lonely such a powerful album is the sense that these are real problems a real person is experiencing. This isn’t just the blind rage of a lover scorned and this isn’t angst. This is when internal and external forces combine and cause you to lose your sense of self. This is a bad place and this is a moment where you have to summon up some additional strength to get out of it, spirit willing.

399. Get High and Listen to The Cure

Alex Russell Welcome to Passaic , , , , , , ,

“Get High and Listen to The Cure” provides you a playlist to execute on the title’s command.

Track: “Get High and Listen to The Cure”
Album: Welcome to Passaic (2019)

If I had to pick one word for the Mountain Goats it would be “specific.” From the early days, John Darnielle’s songwriting has been focused on specificity. You aren’t going to “the city,” you are going to Port Washington. It doesn’t matter, basically at all, what is in Port Washington or why that’s where you’re going. It does matter, however, that you’re going to a specific place and that you are envisioning yourself as different because you’re going there.

This specificity has manifested differently in the more modern era of the Mountain Goats. John Darnielle challenges himself now to create more complex and more ambitious music. It’s very different, very often. This is what led a bartender with a sleeve tattoo inspired by the band to tell me that he doesn’t like the new stuff as much. This is to be expected with all bands and John Darnielle has commented in the past on the phenomenon of people resisting change in a band. Peter Hughes is on the same page, often saying that growth in the band doesn’t invalidate the roots and that you should try to appreciate all of it.

This is a long road to talking about “Get High and Listen to The Cure,” a song that almost entirely that title and about a dozen titles of songs by The Cure. This is a specific experiment, it seems, where John Darnielle wanted to write a song that is only titles of songs. You can listen to a playlist of them here, but you don’t necessarily need to do that. Even if you don’t know anything about The Cure, you can appreciate that John Darnielle appreciates them.

398. Sentries in the Ambush

Alex Russell Sentries in the Ambush , , , , , ,

“Sentries in the Ambush” offers a look into what In League with Dragons was before the finished product emerged.

Track: “Sentries in the Ambush”
Album: Sentries in the Ambush EP (2019)

On the Bandcamp page for the Sentries in the Ambush EP John Darnielle describes exactly what “Sentries in the Ambush” is. This was one of the songs for the original version of In League with Dragons when it was a fantasy story about a town called Riversend and actual, literal dragons and wizards and such. The final album is very different, though it has some elements of that original story, and thus “Sentries in the Ambush” is on an EP and not on the main album.

The song is about people who fight and die in an ambush. It’s literal. You can pick it out from the lyrics, but none of that is as interesting as the “how” of the song. John Darnielle doubles his vocals even on the demo which became the final version. He calls it “a pretty crazy little thing” and whew, he’s right. The doubling here pairs it well with the waltz “Divided Sky Lane” that accompanies it on the EP, but it works better here. The pace is frenetic and it makes sense, given these characters are in chaos. “Slaughter them if you can // kill them all where they stand” is delivered the only way it could be, and then it all peters out with John Darnielle saying “and so on” with a laugh. I’m often a fan of the proof-of-concept demo songs and this is no exception, even with the end being a joke. In League with Dragons ended up being a better album than the story of Riversend would have been, probably, but do take the time to appreciate what might have been.

397. Cadaver Sniffing Dog

Alex Russell In League with Dragons , , , , , , ,

A narrator requests that you bring in the cadaver sniffing dog to sniff the metaphorical cadaver in “Cadaver Sniffing Dog.”

Track: “Cadaver Sniffing Dog”
Album: In League with Dragons (2019)

At the time of this writing, fans of the Mountain Goats are mad about someone who ranked every existing Mountain Goats album. The ranking is internally inconsistent and appears to be a troll job, so I’m not even going to link to it. I mention it because any attempt in any forum to say anything the Mountain Goats have done is better than anything else elicits an argument. I read one thread where people listed every single album in a comment akin to “I can’t believe [XYZ] was snubbed.” If it’s your favorite, to you, it should be everyone’s favorite.

I did not love “Cadaver Sniffing Dog” when I first heard it. I still think it’s the least interesting song on In League with Dragons, but that’s a pretty good place to be. I’d probably say In League with Dragons is my second-favorite of the last ten albums, just behind Heretic Pride. Are these widely held opinions? Does it matter? No, but I felt I couldn’t drag that other list without putting something out there. And I only mention this in this space about “Cadaver Sniffing Dog” because John Darnielle even jokes about the metaphor. The dog is sniffing for a relationship that’s long-since died. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that, because the jam carries it through. The jam also carries the chorus, which is the title restated four times. None of this is to diminish the song, and in fact I think this is all intended to show just how strong I find the rest of the album. Comparisons are handy, but rankings never really do it for me in the world of the Mountain Goats. Just enjoy the groove.

396. In the Shadow of the Western Hills

Alex Russell Steal Smoked Fish , , , , , , ,

Better days come to those who wait, or at least we hope they do, in “In the Shadow of the Western Hills.”

Track: “In the Shadow of the Western Hills”
Album: Steal Smoked Fish (2012)

“In the Shadow of the Western Hills” appears on the Steal Smoked Fish EP, alongside the song in the title. “Steal Smoked Fish” is one of the absolute best Mountain Goats songs of the last ten years and as a result, I’ve never given as much time as I should to the song that’s paired with it. Both songs go with the cast on Transcendental Youth, where people struggle to connect with the people around them and struggle in much greater terms to connect with themselves. During an introduction to this one, John Darnielle once spoke of the entire package of songs as an attempt to grapple with people in this struggle. With this song specifically, Darnielle imagines (or remembers) a person who is fighting the chemicals that make them do things they don’t want to do or can’t understand.

“Call up Rebecca, maybe try to explain // but she hangs up while I’m still talking, I walk out into the rain” is a sad image, but it’s also sad for Rebecca. Characters are rarely named like this and we never hear anything else from Rebecca, so it’s not like a Jenny character, but it is a real person. It’s not “a friend” or “my love” it is Rebecca, a person, someone else out there who maybe wants you to feel better and maybe can’t even identify that as what you need. This one imagines the pain in both directions, where it’s sad that you wander outside and imagine visions and try to make connections, but it’s also sad how that reads to everyone else.

392. Against Pollution

Alex Russell We Shall All Be Healed , , , , , , ,

“Against Pollution” is all about those opening lines, but after the shock it asks you to imagine your own reaction.

Track: “Against Pollution”
Album: We Shall All Be Healed (2004)

“Against Pollution” is not a true story. A whole lot of We Shall All Be Healed is, but this one is just about how you might feel if you found yourself in this situation. A lot of Mountain Goats songs are about things that happen, remarkable or otherwise, in a store. This is, maybe, though I never want to make statements like this that I can’t prove, the only one where someone works behind the counter. It’s a shifted perspective away from the people shoplifting or going through episodes or otherwise having an unrelated experience, and it’s honestly one that’s pretty easy to explain. If someone comes in and tries to kill you, you may have to do what you have to do.

This is an easy statement to make unless you have to interrogate it. The narrator here doesn’t, really, going so far as to say this happened “a year or so ago.” You probably always have a pretty good grasp on exactly when you shot someone in the face, unless you’re the kind of person who didn’t really have to interrogate it. “Against Pollution” is a great song, especially live where the whole thing feels like rain and thunder, but the point I always focus on is how this person feels about what happened. They mention that “something just came over” them and that they went to the Catholic church. This feels disconnected in the song from the self-defense gunshot. Who is this person that would “do it again” and what are we to make of how they talk about this? It’s not fully a judgement, but it’s an interesting look into something you don’t want to imagine for yourself.

391. Cotton

Alex Russell We Shall All Be Healed , , , , , , ,

“Cotton” is about specific cotton for a specific purpose, but it’s also about the things you leave behind physically but not mentally.

Track: “Cotton”
Album: We Shall All Be Healed (2004)

It’s kinda remarkable that a song like “Cotton” has been played hundreds of times live. It’s an outstanding song on an outstanding album, but it’s so personal. John Darnielle has said that it’s about imbuing objects with yourself such that when they go away you feel the pain. I relate to this deeply, and my personal totems aren’t as specific as John Darnielle’s, but the process of how they get there feels similar. John Darnielle’s father owned a desk that the younger Darnielle took to Portland. We Shall All Be Healed is about what happened in Portland. You don’t need me to tell you that it didn’t go all that well in Portland.

I’ve listened to “Cotton” countless times. It is one of those songs. It’s catchy, in the way that songs like this are catchy, but it also rewards deeper study. You’ll get most of the context the first time through, presuming you pick up on what “the stick pins and the cottons” in the drawer of that same desk are used for in this apartment in Portland. You don’t necessarily need to know that it was his father’s desk and that there are complex emotions as something goes from being a childhood memory into a place where you keep your drugs. The strength of We Shall All Be Healed and the best songs on it, like “Cotton,” is that you do not need to be exactly there to be close enough to count. Maybe you did not have a difficult time with specific drugs in specific Portland, but I would bet that there was something you once had that you no longer have. Now, you know.

386. Ice Blue

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

“Ice Blue” does a whole lot with very little language.

Track: “Ice Blue”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

It is not strictly correct to say that the Mountain Goats don’t write love songs, but your definition of a love song must bend a little bit for a lot of them. John Darnielle has a habit of saying “this is a love song” before playing something that may or may not be a love song as I understand the term. You can’t really be right or wrong about this sort of thing, but it’s all part of the game. This becomes less true the further back you go, with “Ice Blue” as a prime example.

There are 40 words in “Ice Blue” and that includes a repeated line. My word counter tool estimates the speaking time at 14 seconds. I don’t have the stats on this because even I’m not this crazy, but this might be the least amount of words in a Mountain Goats song. Up against “Going to Japan” from the same album, it sounds like an entirely different band wrote this one. Even with those limitations, you have the perfect choice of a line, the fourth line’s “ha ha ha // ha ha ha.” You might call that lazy, but an extreme pivot to mania in a love song is pretty appropriate, I’d say.

It all culminates in an expression of pure love: “thought that I knew what colors were // before I saw you // ice blue.” It’s simple, really, but when you’re in that moment looking into someone’s eyes, this is how you feel. The songs become much more complex than “Ice Blue” but the thing is, I don’t think you can improve on this if you want someone to picture this exact moment.

385. Going to Japan

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , , ,

With a long outro and a lot of words for two minutes, John Darnielle shows us the explosion in “Going to Japan.”

Track: “Going to Japan”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

John Darnielle once said of “Going to Japan” that it was one of his better songs from the era. He also said he doubted he’d ever play it live, which seems to be true as far as the usual sources are concerned. The thing about those sources is that they’ll never be 100% accurate, but I think it’s a safe bet this one hasn’t seen the light of day at least in the last two decades. It really is one of the better ones from the early period, but more than that it serves as a sampler of John Darnielle’s early tactics. It opens with repetition that breaks your concentration and forces you to focus despite the recording quality. It uses strong imagery (“a sweet metallic taste in my mouth”) but also bizarre wordplay (“there’s life and liberty on my tongue”). There’s at least one phrase to hold on to (“there’s a coat on my shoulders, midnight connections”) and it all devolves into mad strumming. I don’t think it’s the best song from the era (or on the album) but it’s quite the combination of so many early Mountain Goats elements.

The ending is long enough that it lets you sit with the song’s themes. “There’s a one-way ticket in my hot little hand // and I’m kissing your eyelids and I’m going to Japan” is just enough information to know this is all about to blow up, and we’re left to assume that strumming is the sound of it actually blowing up. We usually don’t get to hear the climax, so it’s an interesting choice to hold the camera here for this long.