Posts

So I'm compulsive about signing up for new things and then not using them. Over the more than two decades...

So I'm compulsive about signing up for new things and then not using them. Over the more than two decades that blogging has been a thing I've probably made more than twenty and not used them...

This is a big open song with big open chords, giving an odd and apocalyptic vision of a fading world....

This is a big open song with big open chords, giving an odd and apocalyptic vision of a fading world. Flowers in dry soil, the birds fleeing for another world, a sense of survivors in a place for...

February opens with a very Violent Femmes place. This is tense storytelling about love going wrong. Several parts of this...

February opens with a very Violent Femmes place. This is tense storytelling about love going wrong. Several parts of this feel like throw forwards to songs yet to come. The mentions of the young...

OK, so I've been doing this for a month. or rather I haven't. I didn't start this until about 3...

OK, so I've been doing this for a month. or rather I haven't. I didn't start this until about 3 weeks ago when someone else mentioned the "book club" on youtube pages. And I posted on a few. But...

This is a song that comes out of the blocks at full pace, with seemingly no care whether if trips...

This is a song that comes out of the blocks at full pace, with seemingly no care whether if trips over its own feet a few times as it goes. It gets noticeably faster as it's going which feels like...

Sometimes John will hit you with a song that's so simple that it wrongfoots you, and the straightforward pleasure of...

Sometimes John will hit you with a song that's so simple that it wrongfoots you, and the straightforward pleasure of it will have you second guessing yourself. This song is small (1 minute 25) and...

This is a song of rolling tension. The top line of the vocals is of both unsettling pitch and content,...

This is a song of rolling tension. The top line of the vocals is of both unsettling pitch and content, the story of someone fundamentally uncomfortable in his situation and his relationship and his...

Imagine this post starts with about 22 seconds of high pitched noise. And then into a delightful lyrical john-and-his-guitar number,...

Imagine this post starts with about 22 seconds of high pitched noise. And then into a delightful lyrical john-and-his-guitar number, which fits into one of the Elvis Costello Five Themes for a...

The interesting thing about a year-long journey through an artist's developing back catalogue is that not all artists develop in...

The interesting thing about a year-long journey through an artist's developing back catalogue is that not all artists develop in all areas at the same rate (in fact very few of them do) and so...

A much more traditional form for an early Mountain Goats song, a slipping and sliding riff with song-spoken lyrics over...

A much more traditional form for an early Mountain Goats song, a slipping and sliding riff with song-spoken lyrics over the top. The form of the lyrics is a movement away from the very early...

The words that jump into my head when I hear this song for the first time are "jangly pastoral". It's...

The words that jump into my head when I hear this song for the first time are "jangly pastoral". It's upbeat, slightly spiky, and giving a view of a place of if not home then at least rest. Eating...

Something about this song feels like a dream. The sort of not quite asleep, not quite fully awake place where...

Something about this song feels like a dream. The sort of not quite asleep, not quite fully awake place where the mind creates things and latches them on to actual sensation. It's a place where...

This song is a rolling stampede, and a mark of John's ever increasing assurance on all fronts of his musicality....

This song is a rolling stampede, and a mark of John's ever increasing assurance on all fronts of his musicality. It's urgent in tone, in tempo, and in subject, and like the best Mountain Goats...

There's an interesting strolling pace to this song that put me in mind of some banjo folk I've heard, which...

There's an interesting strolling pace to this song that put me in mind of some banjo folk I've heard, which might be why this song felt like it was in a country-and-blues-adjacent space. The...

So the first thing to observe about this song is that the thing uploaded to Youtube under its name isn't...

So the first thing to observe about this song is that the thing uploaded to Youtube under its name isn't this song but rather a superbly 80s weird little synth keyboards things. It's quite nice in...

Cheeky start there, John, burst of radio channels ending with "please keep feeding us". Very sound collage. Hot Garden Stomp...

Cheeky start there, John, burst of radio channels ending with "please keep feeding us". Very sound collage. Hot Garden Stomp continues to feel like one of the earlier places where John was saying...

A frantic and uncertain start to a sing that grows into its confidence even as the whirlwind of ifs lyrics...

A frantic and uncertain start to a sing that grows into its confidence even as the whirlwind of ifs lyrics grows in speed. This is a sketch, but it's a sketch that feels like it covers ground that...

There are many archetypes of a Mountain Goats song, but one of my favourite ones is a cheerful ditty about...

There are many archetypes of a Mountain Goats song, but one of my favourite ones is a cheerful ditty about death. This is a short bouncy number with a lot of lyrical repetition, about a guy facing...

Castio-tastic start to this, but a delightful narrative vignette. A tiny sweet moment, as sweet as a fresh cherry. And...

Castio-tastic start to this, but a delightful narrative vignette. A tiny sweet moment, as sweet as a fresh cherry. And that's almost it. Not every song has an important point or a poignant moral,...

This song is a series of fraying loops. A chaotic, rolling guitar rhythm, the fuzz of the cassette recorder mixing...

This song is a series of fraying loops. A chaotic, rolling guitar rhythm, the fuzz of the cassette recorder mixing with the fuzz of the acoustic guitar mixing with the repeated lyrical refrains...