You'd think I'd be really into The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle is an excellent and prolific songwriter. He's got kind of a quriky singing voice and a great sense of humor. And while I've loved everything by The Mountain Goats that I've ever heard, I haven't heard much. I came to the game late, and the task of familiarizing myself with the band's entire catalog has just seemed so daunting. I've resolved to make a dent in that task, however. Yesterday's release of Transcendental Youth on Merge (a label that's been having an amazing year, by the way) provided me with the perfect opportunity.
"Do every stupid thing that makes you feel alive," Darnielle sings as he opens the album on "Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1." Right there the theme is set. Transcendental Youth is full of characters who heed the advice on that opening track to "let people call you crazy for the choices that you make" and to "just stay alive." The record doesn't play like a motivational speaking engagement, though. Some of those choices are darker than simple teenage abandon. "You can't judge us / You're not the judge," says the narrator about his life of drug use and dealing on "Lakeside View Apartments Suite." "In Memory of Satan," with lines like "But no one screams, 'cause it's just me," and the title track -- "Sing for ourselves alone" -- both deal with people choosing to cut themselves off from the rest of the world.
In other places on the record, characters' natures, rather than their choices, place them on the fringes of society. "Cry for Judas," with its chorus of "Long black night / Morning frost / I'm still here / But all is lost," is an up-tempo song about those who, rather than falling down and getting back up again as a better person, never actually learn from their mistakes. The main character in "Counterfeit Florida Plates" is homeless and mentally ill, but the song bops happily along as he digs through the trash and supports himself against a tree so he won't fall to the ground when he passes out from hunger.
The music on Transcendental Youth is a far cry from The Mountain Goats' early, lo-fi recordings. Many of the songs include a full horn section. That, and the way in which all of the tracks are connected thematically, give the whole record a cinematic feel.
In his own comments on Transcendental Youth, John Darnielle promised that parenthood wouldn't turn him soft. He's stuck to that. The characters on Transcendental Youth make what some would consider some bad choices and have some hard lives. When we meet them, though, they've all managed to "stay alive" in spite of it all.
Transcendental Youth is a strong album and an emotional listen. I only wish I could comment more on where it sits among the rest of The Mountain Goats' catalog. Give me a couple of weeks, and I'll let you know.
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