The Daily Spin, April 5

The Mountain Goats | The Sunset Tree

Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.

Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.

If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!

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Album: The Sunset Tree (2005)

Artist: The Mountain Goats

Link:

  

John Darnell elaborates beautifully on youthful angst in a way that holds the emotion years later, even though I’m no longer a teenager and not particularly angsty. As with so many of his works, his storytelling prowess is evident.

Though the album meanders, wandering across the landscape depicted in the album, it always feels tethered, like it’s aware of how far it can stray and how long it has to run. It’s rough around the edges, but it’s an appealing lack of polish, the sort of raw sound through which emotion travels best. 

It doesn’t always make the most sense, trapped in layers of metaphor and verbage that take away from the weight of certain songs, but when it excels, it’s some of the finest work I’ve ever heard - ‘This Year’ and ‘Pale Green Things’ both immediately land on my soundtrack to a life playlist, in no small part, I imagine, because this album does feel a bit like a life’s story in music. 

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Rating: 9.2/10

Best Tracks: This Year; Dilaudid; Pale Green Things

Worst Tracks: Song for Dennis Brown