For those of you who are reading this via a syndicated feed, a warning: I don't think the footnotes actually work properly except on the original post. You can scroll up and down while cursing my name, or click through. Either way.
The Meme Gods have laid temptation before me and, lo, I have succumbed. After a preliminary skirmish over my alleged level of Radiohead-worship, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
clappamungus has tasked me with listing my ten favourite songs by The Mountain Goats.
While I tend to enjoy music in album-sized units (a habit which I may dissect at great length sometime), if I have to think about individual songs by any band then The Mountain Goats are as good an option as any. John Darnielle is firmly ensconced in my personal pantheon of Gods of Awesomeness because, boy, can he write a song.
I haven't titled this post "My 10 Favourite Mountain Goats Songs", because nominating only ten songs from fifteen years or so of prolific songwriting and recording1 is more or less impossible (and, as we will discover, I am still cheating a little bit). Instead, I have chosen ten of my many favourites, limited to a maximum of two from any one album2, and I just hope the rest will forgive me.
It's interesting3 to note that despite my affection for the early boombox albums,4 all these selections come from Darnielle's more recent, polished efforts.
from All Hail West Texas (2002):
The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
This is, for me, the epitome of what I will pretentiously call late-middle-period Mountain Goats. The tale of Cyrus and Jeff, a couple of misfit kids who the grownups just don't understand, told with exuberant defiance. When Darnielle gets to "Hail Satan!", it is a beautiful and unironic thing.
This video on YouTube comes with a lovely introduction from Darnielle.
Fall of the Star High School Running Back
Was 2002 before or after unwieldy song names became popular with the indie crowd? No matter. This tiny little song (it clocks in at 1:49) is exactly what it sounds like, a snapshot of a jock's fall from grace, but taken with humour and compassion rather than judgement. Darnielle's simple yet eloquent lyrics - with the occasional surprise rhyme, sprung on the listener with some kind of brilliant sleight-of-hand - don't even need two minutes of your day, and they will make it better.
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from Tallahassee (2002)
No Children
This song bears more responsibility than any other for my conversion from "mildly obsessive indie music fan who has heard of The Mountain Goats" to "slavering Mountain Goats junkie". I came across it on a music blog somewhere, and listened to it at least 200 times while I was travelling overseas last year. Not only did I not get sick of it in that time, I arrived back in Australia with a burning need to acquire as much music by this band as humanly possible.5
People relate to each other in so many ugly, destructive, hateful ways, and there are any number of songs that deal with that with anger or sadness, self-pity or revenge, but I have never heard a song so unapologetically celebratory as "No Children". If I had to choose just one reason why I love The Mountain Goats, it would be this ability to find beauty in darkness and celebrate both for what they are.
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Game Shows Touch Our Lives
"Game Shows Touch Our Lives" is a love song to an unhealthy relationship, just as "No Children" is a celebration6. It is a sad song, just as a life resigned to stifling in suburbia is a sad life, but yet again Darnielle doesn't judge or criticise, just expresses the reality of the characters' lives. Perfect.
YouTube again, with Darnielle talking quite a lot at the start. But listen to him, for he is awesome.
from We Shall All Be Healed (2004)
Letter from Belgium
I'm not sure what to say about this song, except that the sense of community that the characters cling to as they self-destruct is probably why I like it so much. While I can't say I've ever been part of quite this kind of social scene, there are certain parallels that can be drawn.
Yeah, we're all here / chewing our tonges off / waiting for the fever to break
Your Belgian Things
And when everything has finally fallen apart, there are consequences and grief. If I try to write about how heartbreaking this song is, it will come out all wrong. You will just have to take my word for it.7
The men were here to get your Belgian things / They'll spend the whole day hauling them downstairs / I shot a roll of 32 exposures / My camera groans beneath the weight it bears
from The Sunset Tree (2005)
Broom People
This song is a breath of fresh air. Unlike the characters some of the earlier songs, the narrator of "Broom People" is being saved (by a girl, I expect!) from the oppressive nature of his adolescent existence, rising above it all. Pure escapism.
Up The Wolves
Perhaps it is wrong of me to choose two uplifting songs from The Sunset Tree, especially since I'm not even talking about "This Year" or "Dance Music". But, darn it, I just can't leave either of these out. "Up The Wolves" acquired a certain personal significance for me this year; an always-timely reminder about maintaining optimism in the face of adversity and uncertainty, with that signature Darnielle defiance.
Also, the vocal harmonies in this one are awesome. And I like the use of strings, too. A nice example of the less bare-bones approach that The Mountain Goats have taken since moving to studio production.
Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome / but there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home
from Heretic Pride (2008)
Sax Rohmer #1
Somewhat in the vein of "Broom People", only grown up now and with a big ol' chip on its shoulder, "Sax Rohmer #1" paints a picture of a world in the process of collapsing, loss and despair around every corner, and a protagonist whose jubilant refrain reminds us that everything is going to be just fine. Another song that has had some personal meaning, this year.
I like the official video, too.
And I am coming home to you / with my own blood in my mouth / And I am coming home to you / If it's the last thing that I do.
Lovecraft In Brooklyn
According to the man himself (i.e. Darnielle, in a radio interview I heard earlier this year), the protagonist of this song is not a sympathetic character, and it would probably not be a good thing to identify with him: paranoid, delusional, liable to flip out at any moment. Be that as it may ... well ... I admit, I've had days like this.
Stylistically a bit of a departure, "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" is more electric and more, I suppose, "rock" than everything else I've heard from The Mountain Goats.
Woke up afraid of my own shadow / like, genuinely afraid / Headed for the pawnshop / to buy myself a switchblade
Bonus song (from We Shall All Be Healed)
All Up The Seething Coast
Yup, I cheated with the "ten songs" thing. But this song, in a bizarre way, seems to me to be the other side of the "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" coin, so much so that it seems wrong to mention one without the other. There is just as much paranoia and panic in "All Up The Seething", but instead of rage and violence this protagonist turns to repression and bizarre behaviour. It's creepy stuff; I often find myself holding my breath part way through the song.
I go back to places I remember / see what's been going on without me / Stare down the strangers at the bus stop /
pretend they've been gossiping about me
And that about wraps it up: ten of my favourite Mountain Goats songs (and another one). The rules laid down by the Meme Gods say that I must now provide any who ask with a band to post about (one they know and love, as far as that is possible). The Meme Gods also point out that vox_diabolica asked me to list my ten favourite songs by The Postal Service; however, as I have heard a grand total of ten of their songs you can just work from the assumption that those ten are my favourites.
Stupid Meme Gods.
- My iTunes library lists 249 unique Mountain Goats songs, only a handful of which are covers [↩]
- Yep, I cheated on that as well. [↩]
- Well, it's interesting to me [↩]
- John Darnielle started out by singing and playing guitar into a tape player. Not for anyone who can't stand the vocals being drowned out by tape hiss; adorable to lo-fi aficionados. [↩]
- Hence the 249 unique songs, you see. [↩]
- Note to self: stop using the word "celebrate", damn it. Find a new word. [↩]
- Or you could even get hold of the album and listen to it yourself! There aren't any good videos on YouTube, though, and I'm tired of uploading mp3s already. [↩]
I prefer the unit of album as well. It provides context. How about your least favourite Mountain Goat songs?
Mmm, music. I don't know the Mountain Goats very well, but possibly should I suspect.
Hey, sue me if I thought that you were a Radiohead fan. I knew that you'd listened to the Thom Yorke album and liked it, so it was a logical conclusion that you also liked Radiohead! ;)
Anyway, you've got me interested in the Mountain Goats now.
"There aren’t any good videos on YouTube, though,..."
Really? Try "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine" and then say that!
You might find some other classy stuff there too!
@Blinvisible: I have no idea why WordPress thought your comment was spam. Stupid WordPress! As you can see, I have resurrected it.
My least favourite Mountain Goats songs would be a hard list to write. They have no songs that I actively dislike, and I like all of their songs in the context of their albums. There are only songs of theirs that I don't like as much as the ones I really like, and that would be a boring sort of list to write.
@sylver_spiders: Yes! I agree. When I was writing about some of the songs, I was actually thinking that it seemed likely that you would appreciate them.
@clappamungus: Well, I do like Radiohead a lot, and I have all their albums. I was just nonplussed when two people independently decided that OBVIOUSLY Radiohead are the band that I MOST know and love, OBVIOUSLY. I didn't realise I had created such an impression!
@Perplexius: Funny, aren't you.
I would like to play this game :)
@ephant: I suppose somebody has to do this: you get Barenaked Ladies.