The Life Of The World To Come
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Artist:
The Mountain Goats is a Durham, North Carolina-based band which is essentially the vehicle for the incredibly prolific singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The Mountain Goats' albums have featured a constantly changing line-up of musicians, with Darnielle the only constant; when performing live, the band commonly comprises only Darnielle backed by Peter Hughes on bass guitar.
Their latest release, The Life of the World to Come, is their 17th studio LP and is composed of twelve tracks, each one inspired by (and titled after) a single verse of the Christian bible.
1 Samuel 15:23
Psalms 40:2
Genesis 3:23
Deuteronomy 2:10
Scattered among their many releases are song series: thematically interconnected ruminations on a single theme. Each EP and album is a project to be understood alone and as a part of an interrelated whole. Releases would often contain quotes, mostly in Latin, that gave hints to the theme of the piece.
These are Enumerated below for anyone interested in further exploration, Fascinating stuff.
Alpha series
Songs in this category concern the same fictional couple, described as a lower-middle-class man and woman who originally loved each other genuinely, and held generally ordinary concerns for one another's well-being, but whose relationship has degraded for a variety of reasons, most often a series of fights or drug and/or alcohol abuse, possibly both.[2] Whatever the causes for their current situation, their love has not so much died as warped into the sincere, all-consuming desire of each of them to see the other drink themselves to death; thus, to facilitate this "walk down to the bottom", as described in the liner notes, the couple keep whatever liquor they can afford on hand for each other and stay together.
The album "Tallahassee", being entirely about the Alpha couple, begins with the pair buying a run-down house in the eponymous capital of Florida, and follows their descent into a spiral of mutual self-destruction. The album ends with a vision of the house burning and both of them being consumed in flames. Other songs not found on Tallahassee, usually including the word "Alpha" in their titles, deal with similar situations. Though there is no officially established order of the Alpha songs' complete continuity, John Darnielle has said that the last song in the set is "Alpha Omega", which depicts the end of the Alpha couple's relationship, with the narrator finding a note from their departed mate while eating boiled peanuts for breakfast.
The songs below are all part of the series:
* Alpha Aquae
* Alpha Compunction
* Alpha Desperation March
* Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina
* Alpha Gelida
* Alpha Incipiens
* Alpha Negative
* Alpha Omega
* Alpha Rats Nest
* Alpha Sun Hat
* Alpha in Tauris
* Alphabetizing
* Design Your Own Container Garden
* Ethiopians
* First Few Desperate Hours
* Game Shows Touch Our Lives
* Going to Dade County
* Have to Explode
* The House that Dripped Blood
* Idylls of the King
* International Small Arms Traffic Blues
* Letter From a Motel (or if you prefer: Letter from the Alpha Motel (or if you prefer: Letter from the Alpha Privative Motel)
* New Chevrolet In Flames
* No Children
* Oceanographer's Choice
* Old College Try
* One Winter At Point Alpha Privative
* Peacocks
* See America Right
* Southwood Plantation Road
* Spilling Toward Alpha
* Tallahassee
* Twelve Hands High [was originally titled: Fit Alpha Vi]
Going to ... series
The 46 songs in this category are generally about needing to get out of a place and/or thinking life will magically improve by moving somewhere new. The characters are not always the same from song to song. Some of the songs, as pointed out by John Darnielle during live performances, are written from the perspective of a fictional stalker.
Although all the songs in the "Going To..." series were written by Darnielle, not all of them are credited to The Mountain Goats. For example, "Going to Marrakesh" and "Going to Lubbock" were performed by The Extra Glenns, Darnielle's side-project with Franklin Bruno, and released under that band's name.
The songs contained in the "Going To..." series are as follows:
* Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina
* Flight 717: Going to Denmark
* Going to Alaska
* Going to Bangor
* Going to Bogota
* Going to Bolivia
* Going to Bridlington
* Going to Bristol
* Going to Buffalo
* Going to Chino
* Going to Cleveland
* Going to Dade County
* Going to Detroit
* Going to East Rutherford
* Going to France
* Going to Georgia
* Going to Hungary
* Going to Jamaica
* Going to Japan
* Going to Kansas
* Going to Kirby Sigston
* Going to Lebanon
* Going to Lubbock
* Going to Maine
* Going to Malibu
* Going to Marrakesh
* Going to Maryland
* Going to Mexico
* Going to Michigan
* Going to Monaco
* Going to Morocco
* Going to Norwalk
* Going to Palestine
* Going to Pomona (Or: Going Through Pomona)
* Going to Port Washington
* Going to Queens
* Going to Reykjavik
* Going to San Diego
* Going to Santiago
* Going to Scotland
* Going to Some Damned English City
* Going to Spain
* Going to Spirit Lake
* Going to Tennessee
* Going to Utrecht
* Going to Wisconsin
Pure ... series
The songs in this series are as follows:
* Pure Crystal
* Pure Gold
* Pure Heat
* Pure Honey
* Pure Intentions
* Pure Love
* Pure Milk
* Pure Money
* Pure Sound
* Pure Sun
Orange Ball series
The title of this series comes from a book by Don DeLillo in which the sun is repeatedly described as an "orange ball". The songs contained in the "Orange Ball" series are as follows:
* Orange Ball of Hate
* Orange Ball of Love
* Orange Ball of Pain
* Orange Ball of Peace
Quetzalcoatl series
Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent" or "plumed serpent") is the Nahuatl name for the Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerica, one of the main gods of many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations and also the name given to some Toltec rulers, the most famous being Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. The songs included in the Quetzalcoatl series are as follows:
* Quetzalcoatl Comes Through
* Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums
* Quetzalcoatl is B
Most Info from wiki...
Locating MOG account...
Comments (9)
geesh ... I'd forgotten about the Mountain Goats ... thanks for the reminder :)
no prob :-)
I know I've heard an interesting track here and there, but never knew this much of the prolific nature of Darnielle's output. I suppose we've all touched the inspiration of these songs in some way, and I that's part of the magnetic magic of tragedy. Informative post, and now I must know more.
Darnielle is indeed quite the prolific musician, and an outstanding songwriter IMO. i love TMG, have only heard a few tracks off the new one, so wow, thanks for all these uploads. (:
A truly uncreative band name for such a creative artist. Within the past 6 months I learned about TMG from a friend I met at Coachella Fest who is now a Facebook contact. She is CRAZY about them.
I finally decided to give them a listen since Blair(I think)provided a convenient link on Facebook for me to hear this album. Overall I wasn't too impressed BUT the song/lyrics to Matthew 25:21 caught my attention on a personal level since it is about dealing w/the death of a loved one & I had to have it in my music library. I may not be that wild about their music style but I recognize the songwriting genius of Darnielle.
Had no idea they had so many albums out! That's amazing. I thought they had, tops, 3 albums. Shows ya what I know, heh. Btw, this post was almost too overwhelming w/all the info you provided yet fascinating nonetheless.
Way to much work for me.. I just want something to tap my foot too :)
Kinda like the harem series of series
Darnielle is a hell of a song writer. One of his earlier efforts is titled "All Hail West Texas" with the explanation: "Fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys." It is funny, sad, smacks of stone truth, and is fully described by the explanation. I loaned my copy of the newest to a friend, so did not review yet. It takes too much knowledge to set up an elaborate classification scheme, but I applaud the effort...
Well, these musical treats are all new to me, and I am deely impressed. I listened to "Genesis" first, and I would have sworn it was Barenaked Ladies....the similar sound is uncanny. Loved "Psalms" as well, although it was a very different sound IMO.
It is clear this guy is a magnificent story teller.....I will listen more closely to all of the songs later-----wow! how did I miss all of this?? They have SO much@!