February 24 - Going To Scotland

God, this is catchy. God this is catchy. A life and a travelogue in a song that lives in being close part harmony between a male and female voice. This is joyful and desperate and brimming over with love and need and no way back. I'm put in mind of the Ben Wheatley film Sightseers, which starts as two odd people on a road trip and both becomes so much more and stays exactly that.

One of the several ways that the Mountain Goats style is evolving is in how much this felt like a song. Yeah, that sounds weird to say. But a big part of the appeal of early Mountain Goats is witnessing a fight between the part of John Darnielle that wants to write difficult poetry about the strange and the part that wants to make beautifully catchy pop, and this is one of the early songs that squares the circle of doing both without either losing out.

I was in Edinburgh in October for my wedding anniversary. And to see a very good friend I hadn't seen in way too long who was visiting from New Zealand. It was an odd trip with lots of emotions firing in odd directions, but what resonated from that to this is the feeling on being in a strange place and still being who you are. Which is reassuring exactly as often as it's terrifying.