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This is a vignette with a ghost in it, a delightful and time honoured musical tradition. A slice from John's...

This is a vignette with a ghost in it, a delightful and time honoured musical tradition. A slice from John's life from which he has removed himself and added another. Musically this is about as...

A gentle song to start with, this begins in what the cruel might call banality but which I think of...

A gentle song to start with, this begins in what the cruel might call banality but which I think of as melancholy comfort. The small moments in a majestic life before it knows it's over. Like...

oh, I love the riff for this, the slow descending chaotic catastrophic roll of guitar with spoken words over the...

oh, I love the riff for this, the slow descending chaotic catastrophic roll of guitar with spoken words over the top. And what words. Easy to listen to, steady in pace, but setting a scene of...

There's something about John's simple, narrative, confessional songs that really strike home the most. The ones where the words are...

There's something about John's simple, narrative, confessional songs that really strike home the most. The ones where the words are in a sense very straightforward and in another crackling with...

...wow, this feels like a time jump. We're still with the rumbling of John's tape recorder, but everything from the...

...wow, this feels like a time jump. We're still with the rumbling of John's tape recorder, but everything from the vocals to the instrumentation to the lyrics feels almost infinitely more modern...

Time for an odd thing to say: this is one of the most consciously "songy" of the songs so far....

Time for an odd thing to say: this is one of the most consciously "songy" of the songs so far. The repeated refrain of "I've got a radio" and the tight but coherent narrative break it away from the...

After two days of experimentation we return to something more foundational and closer to John's poetic and folk-inflected roots. The...

After two days of experimentation we return to something more foundational and closer to John's poetic and folk-inflected roots. The music here is a lyric transmission system and the recording is...

Sometimes when you're listening to early material by an artist you can catch the moment that they "get it". Not...

Sometimes when you're listening to early material by an artist you can catch the moment that they "get it". Not when they become successful, but a point some distance before that where they first...

In one sense, this was the song so far in this year (and in This Year) which sounded least like...

In one sense, this was the song so far in this year (and in This Year) which sounded least like The Mountain Goats. Which made it the song that sounded the most like The Mountain Goats. Coming to...

I remember a quiet joy when I was first learning to play the guitar, of working out things that I...

I remember a quiet joy when I was first learning to play the guitar, of working out things that I considered to be "cheats". I was never a good guitarist, but one reason guitar is such a popular...

The early songs of John Darnielle are like brilliant notes on index cards. Actually, not index cards. Receipts, bank deposit...

The early songs of John Darnielle are like brilliant notes on index cards. Actually, not index cards. Receipts, bank deposit slips, Chinese food menus. They're urgent thoughts that spit an idea out...

So this is an interesting one. It comes from a compilation called "Back to the Egg, Asshole" which appears to...

So this is an interesting one. It comes from a compilation called "Back to the Egg, Asshole" which appears to be a multi artist mixtape where all the songs have the same names as Beatles songs,...

Wow, this is early. A song from the first Mountain Goats cassette. In fact, the first song from that first...

Wow, this is early. A song from the first Mountain Goats cassette. In fact, the first song from that first cassette. It couldn't be more simple in terms of the looping rhythm, and at one minute...

One of the first things I notice about this song, and I'll confess it's not one I'd heard before now,...

One of the first things I notice about this song, and I'll confess it's not one I'd heard before now, is something very familiar. An old friend from countless other places: the soft musical drone...