Life Is Demanding Without Understanding

Oh, yes. It's time for Tuesday's Mountain Goats list. I know you've all (ha!) been anxiously awaiting this since last week, and here we go. God, this was hard. I had some pretty serious culling to do. These songs are just the ten that I couldn't even fathom taking off the list. There are so many more that should be on here for so many reasons, but these ten are the top ten Mountain Goats songs that I just haven't been able to stop listening to since I first got into the band. I go through so many specific-song phases where I just listen to one over and over, but these are the ten that stick around and I keep coming back to.

Well, okay, nine. The last one is just epic.

They're numbered in, um...what do they call it in High Fidelity? Autobiographical order, I think? Not necessarily the order in which I first got the albums or even listened to the songs, but the order in which I became completely obsessed with each particular song, one by one.

1. No Children (Tallahassee)
Okay, so maybe this is one of their more "mainstream" songs or whatever. It's the first Mountain Goats song I ever heard - on a mix CD from a friend in ninth grade - and I feel like I owe a pretty big part of my musical tastes and interests to it. The question haunts me every day: What if I had never heard the Mountain Goats? This is the perfect introductory Mountain Goats song. Crisp and clear, upbeat tempo, and cripplingly depressing lyrics. When I saw the Mountain Goats at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago a few years ago, they played this on the outdoor stage in the middle of the sweltering July afternoon. Johnny D introduced it as a sing-a-long. And somehow, at that moment, being in the midst of hundreds of people all screaming in unison, "I hope you die! I hope we all die!"* was the best feeling imaginable.
*The crowd switched up the lyrics a bit to fit the situation better.

2. Going to Georgia (Zopilote Machine)
I don't even want to say anything about this one; just go fucking listen to it. "The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and you're standing in the doorway." It's being in love. That's all this song is. It's dusk, and doorways, and being in love. With a little bit of apprehension (and, okay, a gun) thrown in - but really, what's love without that?

3. Cotton (We Shall All Be Healed)
Honestly, I just think this one is pretty. The lyrics are great, obviously, but not anywhere near some of Darnielle's best; same goes for the music itself. But it's simple, and sweet, and reassuring. The guitar strums always give me a slightly gooey feeling inside.

4. Jenny (All Hail West Texas)
The thing with most Mountain Goats songs is that once you know them fairly well, they're pretty much all great to sing along with. "Goddamn, the pirate's life for me!" This song feels like fantasy to me, a dream song. The eager guitar strumming breaks through the vocals from time to time. Darnielle is excited, he's enthralled, he's engaged as he sings. He's letting himself get just a little carried away - but not too much. This, like so many other Mountain Goats songs, is all imagination.

5. Collapsing Stars (Come, Come to the Sunset Tree)
This is the version from the demos album released while tMG were touring to support The Sunset Tree, but this song was also released on the Dilaudid EP. That version is also really interesting and definitely worth listening to - it's almost orchestrated, with violins and pianos filling out the structure of the song - but the original demo hits closer to home for me. The bareness of the single guitar complements the eerie honesty of the lyrics. This album is about (along with many other things) being a teenager, and this song perfectly captures the feelings of determination and gritted teeth that I think has a lot to do with being that age, and being invincible. I almost believe him when he sings, "You can look, but you won't find another love like ours." I want this kid to win. I want it all to work out for him. But you can't help but get the feeling from this song that it just never does.

6. Orange Ball of Hate (Zopilote Machine)
All of the songs in the 'Orange Ball' series are wonderful, but this song always stands out to me. I have the same image of the doorway from "Going to Georgia" in my head, but a little later in the year, a little earlier in the day, and with a lot more smirking. This song destroys the fantasy we see in "Jenny". We learn about hopelessness in the face of love; we see everything that's wrong with him, with her, with their relationship, but all we hear is "I sure do love you". The "rocks in her head", the not wanting "to live in new england anymore", that "stupid children's song" she's singing - it's all worth it. This is what it's really about, these dumb little things, and how they're overcome by love.

7. Fault Lines (All Hail West Texas)
It's really difficult to write these little blurbs sometimes because all you really have to do it just listen to the lyrics, because that's what so many of these songs are really about. Like in "No Children", the contrast between the fairly upbeat melody and the absolute desperation contained within the lyrics is striking, and makes it just that much more profound as the song spirals downward and abruptly ends with just a simple "La la la la, hey hey!"

8. Southwood Plantation Road (Tallahassee)
I only started listening to this song a lot after the aforementioned show in Chicago, where they played this and had a dance contest to see who could pogo the longest. This song grabs you. It's trying to keep a hold on something; you can feel Darnielle's vocals trying to grasp something in the air. The instruments power forward, reaching and stretching to fill up any empty space there might be. And, of course, the first three lines of this song are some of my favorite lyrics ever. I grimace every time I hear "Our conversations are like minefields; no one's found a safe way through one yet". Everybody has someone like that. It never gets any easier.

9. Color In Your Cheeks (All Hail West Texas)
I've been sitting here thinking for a few minutes now, and I don't think I can explain why this is one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs. The lyrics are pretty, sweet, harmless, calming - but, admittedly, Darnielle's done better. The guitar is all of the above, just steadily and simply marching forward to progress the song. But something about this song just gives me a good feeling when I sing along. It gets stuck in my head, and I just smile.

10. The Sign
In case anyone ever had any doubts - John Darnielle is fucking adorable.

See you next week, fools. Love you all.

xoxo,
Tuesday
(who is pretty pissed, while we're on the subject, that there wasn't a new episode of Gossip Girl this week...)