the sunset tree

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.

 

012. High Doses #2

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

 

The hero in “High Doses #2” is prepared to fight the good fight, but would much rather hear a loving voice in a tough time.

Track: “High Doses #2”
Album: Come, Come to the Sunset Tree (2005)

Come, Come to the Sunset Tree was a limited edition release during the tour for The Sunset Tree proper. It features eight of the thirteen songs from The Sunset Tree and three bonus songs, all of which have become fan favorites. Some of that is owed to the “rare” label placed on them, but there’s some logic to those songs being special. John Darnielle has said that he loves feeding the “collector” impulse and is often tempted to release his best work in ways that make it extremely difficult to find. That’s died out (sorta) with their relative success, but a lot of the most unique Mountain Goats songs of the earlier years are hidden on EPs and imports.

“High Doses #2” is one of the bonus songs, and it’s the one you hear talked about least often of the three. “The Day the Aliens Came” is the most fun you can have at the end of humanity and “Collapsing Stars” is a special kind of revenge fantasy, but “High Doses #2” gets right in the mind of the young John Darnielle in The Sunset Tree years.

The Sunset Tree is about how to respond to abuse, and “High Doses 2” is the song you scream into the mirror as a replacement for the target of your anger. Our hero is “wringing my hands // grinding my teeth” and is obsessed with violent imagery. From paper cuts to flesh wounds, our narrator has plans for the people who have wronged them. The violence is warranted, but it’s the phone call that says it all. After calling their sister and not reaching her, they lament “the points where contact fails us.” The lesson: find someone to help you through it, but be ready to fight when it’s time to fight.

010. Broom People

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

“Broom People” uses specific images to talk about the general feeling of young love being the only damn thing you need.

Track: “Broom People”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

Most of The Sunset Tree is a very personal look at John Darnielle’s abusive stepfather. Songs like “Lion’s Teeth,” “Dance Music,” and “Magpie” get right at the heart of the fear and the sadness of what it’s like to be young and afraid. The album is also concerned with the entirety of sad childhood in a lot of ways, and that’s where songs like “Broom People” come in.

While “You or Your Memory” and “Pale Green Things” offer John’s stepfather a chance to be a more complicated character than the brutal villain he is through most of the album, it’s in “Broom People” that we really get to know the boy himself. His stepfather doesn’t even make an appearance. The closest the song comes to the album’s dark center is in lines where he’s suggested, like “I write down good reasons to freeze to death” or the appearance of “well meaning teachers.”

“Broom People” is about the ways we hide. He’s on the record about the song and he says it’s about a girl that he slept with three times a day when he was 14 years old. She’s not Cathy, which only matters for the narrative because it’s not the same name from “This Year.” In that fact we find a little commentary on the fleeting nature of “love” as a teenager. Everything is intense immediately, but that doesn’t cut into the reality of lines like “down in your arms // in your arms, I am a wild creature.” This is a place for John to hide from a life that he can’t find any other way to process.

All of The Sunset Tree is about making the best of bad situations, but only “Broom People” ends with — at least temporarily — a happy protagonist.

001. Up the Wolves

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

 

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

John Darnielle says it’s about “the moment in your quest for revenge when you learn to embrace the futility of it.”

Track: “Up the Wolves”
Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

The Sunset Tree is emotionally raw. It dives deep into John’s childhood and isn’t uncomfortable holding the camera too long on a shot of abuse. In other songs he’s being directly attacked or broken down, but the meaning of “Up the Wolves” is more abstract. With stand-ins of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome who, according to myth, were raised by a wolf, John offers an anthem to people in tough situations. Those two waited, anxiously, secure in the knowledge that the wolf was coming home. John wants his troubled listener to know that some kind of wolf is coming home for them, too.

Every comment section about “Up the Wolves” is overrun with fans of The Walking Dead, since the song was used in an emotional moment during a recent season of the show. It’s a fitting scene, filled with catharsis and literal fire, and once you see two beloved characters give in to a foolish impulse just to keep morale high during a dark time, you understand that no other song would fit.

You may take issue with the amount of “hope” in “Up the Wolves.” It’s entirely possible that the wolf doesn’t come back. That isn’t all that important, though. Like so many songs by the Mountain Goats, it’s not about the result. It’s about the importance of recognizing that troubles may be temporary. Much like the opening lines to a more recent Goats song (“Do every stupid thing // that makes you feel alive”), the lyrics of “Up the Wolves” plead with the listener to wait for a proverbial wolf. Get yourself in “fighting trim” and “bribe the officials” when you have to, but beyond all else, don’t lose hope.