me (flirting, again): so the mountain goats' music can really be separated in to three main eras: the lo-fi era, which is all of their music up until 2002 + songs for pierre chuvin. these are all pretty much just john darnielle and a guitar except for occasional background vocals. these songs are mostly about toxic relationships, and feature prominent alcoholic couple the "alpha couple" who get their own album at the start of the hi-fi era. these songs have very raw, emotional lyrics, which pretty much hit you like a truck. audio quality is not needed in here, we're busy weeping. the next era is considered the hi-fi era, which starts with tallahassee, marking the end of the shitty boombox recording sound (which most fans love just as much). these albums are much more produced, but are still just as emotional and raw. the focus does shift a lot from songs mostly about toxic romantic relationships to a larger variety of things, like john's life and experiences, and stories about both real and fictional people. most of these had to do with drugs, also. the current era, also called the matty bones era because this is when matt douglas joined the band, shifts the focus a bit. the best way i can articulate the shift is that the music is more focused on story rather than on emotions. now pretty much every mountain goats song does tell a narrative, but the matty bones era songs feel more musical theater-esque in the way they tell them. this isn't a bad thing, though! the songs are often very upbeat and fun, while also typically telling a horrifically dark story. the music is pretty unique to each album, with goths being the only mountain goats album to feature no guitar, i'm pretty sure. the stories these songs are so focused on telling usually follow the theme of the album, and they still feel powerful and emotional. i do think some of the albums in this era were a bit overproduced, namely dark in here and getting into knives, but i also think that bleed out and goths especially really benefited from this level of production. in conclusion, all of the eras are great! everybody has a preference (and most people's preference is hi-fi), but no matter what, every album still seems to capture whatever magic it is that makes the mountain goats the mountain goats, and they all make me cry sometimes. ok any questions? what's that? oh. DON'T YOU FUCKING MENTION THE COW SONG IN MY HOUSE GET OUT. GET OUT GET THE FUCK OUT.
