We're only doing full lengths as per the records page of this website just to keep it short (in actually, not really, discuss any closers you like!), but just what's your favorite? What do you have to say about them that's representative as a whole? Do you think it should've ended with a downer instead, or vice versa? Just say what you want about them. I just started thinking a lot about this because I was talking to my friend about how I look at GBV different now that Huffman Prairie Flying Field is no longer closing out their catalog, and I just don't like it. It was such a perfect final note for the band, and of course I just started thinking about tMG as I do.

I often feel like had Mountain Goats retired their moniker, Alpha Rats Nest would be the perfect song to bow out on. I always got that sense of completion, a close second would be the appropriate In Corolla. Something about Ezekiel 7 just kind of turns around the whole of LotWtC to me, just feels a little bit less brittle and more scornful. I mean it was that way at the beginning of the album, but Isaiah kind of puts everything to peace and Ezekiel just brings it up again in an uncomfortable way. I a lot of times end up skipping it. I love MMR, but that damned falsetto just sours me at the very end.

I used to really not like Cold Milk Bottle, but it grew on me in such a way. I can easily see why John would want to follow up to the album because that song just makes you feel like there's a little more in store. He definitely loves to leave with the penultimate song being one of the most powerful, and then the last to kind of be there for some resonance and reflection.

What do you guys think?

For reference
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All Eternals Deck - Liza Forever Minelli
The Life Of The World To Come - Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
Heretic Pride - Michael Myers Resplendent
Get Lonely - In Corolla
The Sunset Tree - Pale Green Things
We Shall All Be Healed - Pigs That Ran Straighaway into the Water, Triumph of
Tallahassee - Alpha Rats Nest
All Hail West Texas - Absolute Lithops Effect
The Coroner's Gambit - We Were Patriots
Full Force Galesburg - It's All Here In Brownsville
Nothing for Juice - Going to Scotland
Sweden - Cold Milk Bottle
Zopilote Machine - Quetzalcoatl is Born

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1840 - Hounds in Sonora, Mexico, invent music, write bogus "History of Music" to preserve anonymity.

Laughin Out Loud



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 11:07AM by Mr Glass.

I always felt Original Air Blue Gown sounded like a great closing song, all quiet and wistful. But then It's All Here in Brownsville comes on and kind of just picks you up and places you somewhere else. It's fitting, in a way, because I never felt like I left Western Illinois until that song, but that physical removal is important to grasping the importance of place on the album. You don't really know what a place is like until you leave.

Musically, OABG sounds like a closing song, but IAHIB is a much better close, thematically.

edit: I guess it's similar to you how feel about Cold Milk Bottle.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 11:53AM by dtrom4.

I really like the closers to Martial Arts Weekend and Undercard; going out with a brief, concentrated burst of energy.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph of

As I think it just puts such a nice period on the end of the album's story arch. Positive in a weird and twisted way, which is what I consider to be the best and most interesting character of an MGs song or album.

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The first thing that distinguishes a writer is that he is most alive when alone. - Martin Amis

^{IN COROLLA}

Michael Myers Replendent always screws with me as a closer 'cause it was such a good show opener. Pigs, maybe? Brownsville similarly freshens things up.


Green Things.

Ezekiel might be my stand-alone favourite on tLotWtC, but I hear what you're saying on it changing things.
Actually, looking at the list like that, my head's really done a disservice to tMG closers, likely because my 'other favourite' Silver Jews are so good at 'em. Or maybe it's just too much time on repeat.

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midgoat

Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born
Quetzalcoatl is Born

and Cold Milk Bottle is pretty good, too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/2012 02:07PM by protopostmodern.

Quote
Mr Glass
I can easily see why John would want to follow up to the album because that song just makes you feel like there's a little more in store. He definitely loves to leave with the penultimate song being one of the most powerful, and then the last to kind of be there for some resonance and reflection.

This is so true. The last songs always seem a bit separated from the rest of the album, like a coda or an easter egg after the end credits sort of thing. They don't really announce themselves and you almost forget that they're there but eventually they seep into your consciousness. My faves are Cold Milk Bottle and We Were Patriots.

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[kidsteel.bandcamp.com]

Quote
Zopilote Steel

Quote
Mr Glass
I can easily see why John would want to follow up to the album because that song just makes you feel like there's a little more in store. He definitely loves to leave with the penultimate song being one of the most powerful, and then the last to kind of be there for some resonance and reflection.

The last songs always seem a bit separated from the rest of the album, like a coda

Reading my mind, ZS.

Bearing in mind how much I hate fade-outs, I think Alpha Rats Nest should fade out.

to me, most the the Mountain Goats albums' last two songs are always a song that sounds like a practical way to wrap up the album with appropriate energy and flow, and then the actual last song sort of goes in a totally different direction from what you'd expect but it ends up being perfect. Alpha Rats Nest being the perfect example. Ezekiel 7 is my favorite tMG song, so technically that would be my favorite album closer, but in terms of how it ends the album, I don't think you can top Oceanographer flowing into Alpha Rats Nest.

The only closer I could really do without is We Were Patriots, because it comes right after The Alphonse Mambo, which would be such a great closer! "Waiting for the other shoe to drop" and we keep waiting because the album ends there!

Otherwise I'm fairly pro most of the closers, as closers and as songs. Certainly though, my favorites:
-Quetzalcoatl is Born
-Michael Meyers
-Ezekiel 7
-Pigs That Ran

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2012 05:34AM by safe123.

Pale Green Things and Going to Scotland rule the roost for me here.

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let's get dressed up in costumes and dance by the bar.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2012 04:30PM by betamax.

I really love "Alpha Rats Nest", "Pigs" and "In Corolla" as closers for they have that bit of hope after a sometimes dark journey (even though "Alpha Rats Nest" is a pretty bitchy beast), a hope that let's you get away living after all.

Quote
Doc Sanchez
"In Corolla"

Edit: BUT... if eligible, i would choose Dogs of Clinic 17. top shelf Goats right there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2012 10:11PM by ihasler.

"We Were Patriots" is so wistful and, to me, perfectly encapsulates the "calm before the storm" feeling that pervades the album. Love it.

I agree that the closers often stand out a bit from the rest of the record, a kind of afterword. The last four kinda end on downers, huh? The house going up in flames, never getting away from this place, interminable driving and murder, suicide by drowning.

I'm listening to We Were Patriots right now and while Alphonse Mambo is great, it couldn't end any other way. WWP is definitely in my top 5 (maybe 3) songs from TCG.

Michael Meyers Resplendent always messes with my head a bit, and i love the duality of the story going on. Liza Forever Minelli is another favorite, and then It's All Here in Brownsville. Pale Green Things and Absolute Lithops Effect round out my top 5 probably.

Re: Transcendental Youth from the Low Times podcast

Quote
JD
I knew Spent Gladiator 1 comes first. I wanted Spent Gladiator 2 to be the last one but then, in the final analysis, I was like "no, no, no that's your false ending," right?, and the real ending is the title track.

I would vote for Pale Green Things, tying everything up Pretty and Right, but the last six, seven albums, have all had perfect album closers. He's obviously worked on that specifically. Like, keeping the concept of a full album as one solid piece of music alive.

Going to Scotland, for managing the near impossible task of making me smile only a few songs after the crushing "Waving At You."

Also, Michael Meyers Resplendant is a personal favorite because my sweetheart shouts it when she's had a bad day, and she shouts it when she's had a good day.

Quote
Hawaiianfeeling
Also, Michael Meyers Resplendant is a personal favorite because my sweetheart shouts it when she's had a bad day, and she shouts it when she's had a good day.

What he's saying is... she shouts it!

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[hackberrygarage.tumblr.com]
[eavesdroppingvulpine.tumblr.com]

Michael Myers Resplendent is probably my favorite closer, as well one of my favorite songs.

Wow, I never noticed how great the album closers really function as closers until I read this thread (with the exception of Alpha Rat's Nest, which wraps up Tallahassee concisely and beautifully, so i suppose that one)

Treetop Song does it but we are not doing EP closers.

Going to Scotland and Transcendental Youth are really great



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/30/2012 12:39AM by Righteous Fury.