Pretend for a minute that you go on an epic quest, a Very Noble Search for Truth. You traverse mountains and valleys and bogs and deserts and finally you reach the oracle you’ve been seeking. Breathless from the journey, you pant out the question you’ve worked so hard to ask: “What is humanity?”
Instead of answering outright, the oracle starts to sing. He sings stories, every one different, some true, some not, and suddenly in your core starts a stirring of emotions you’d long forgotten and feelings you never thought you’d feel, and they’re relentless. There’s dancing, there’s fighting, there’s wrestling and dragons and goths, there’s hating more than you’ve ever hated, burning deep in your insides, or loving so hard your voice and body shatter. He sings about poverty and decadence and the beauty and brokenness in both and you start to understand that everything is broken and everything is redeemed.
That’s John Darnielle. That’s The Mountain Goats.
