July 20 - Mosquito Repellent

Most of the songs in This Year are Mountain Goats alone, or something calling itself "Mountain Goats" when it's John and miscellaneous other people. There aren't many (although there's a couple) that are full collaborations.

The first thing to note about this song is how fucking great the guitar is. Kaki King isn't someone I had come across before, but now I'm going to have to go digging, which is what collaborations are for, after all. There is so much in this one guitar part, and so much more in the instrumentation around it. A twisting maze of music, with space at the top for John, and he uses that space to writhe and bite and fight against restraints that he is placing upon himself.

It feels like this song was written when John was in a bad place. There's a feeling to it of new pain, while albums like The Sunset Tree are loaded with old pain. And the two things are as different as fresh wine versus vintage. The difference between hearing someone who was hurt and hearing someone who is hurting.

Time heals all wounds, apart from the ones it makes fester.