Get Lonely was the first Mountain Goats record I heard. I've not been listening to the band for long and only have a few albums so far, but it's been very rewarding getting to know the band's work and I'm excited for the many, many albums I've not heard yet.
I'd never really heard much about the band until I met my friend Aled's friend, Criddle, who was a massive fan. We met at the Jeff Mangum-curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival; The Mountain Goats had been due to play but couldn't make the rescheduled dates so had to cancel. Criddle was pissed but still had a great time. A while later he posted a link to a song on Facebook and I listened to it and very much enjoyed it. Right now, I can't remember what the song was, but if I tried I could work it out from what I remember of the video. After that point I decided I should make an effort to get into the band.
The first opportunity I was presented with was in Arrow's Aim, a small record shop in Gainesville that predominantly sold the punk records the town was well-known for. I can't remember if they had any other Mountain Goats LPs, but I added Get Lonely to my stack of purchases and was very eager to hear it on my return to the UK. About a month later I found Transcendental Youth in Banquet (their most recent album at the time) and quickly expanded my collection.
I like Get Lonely, but I have no idea where it stands in the generally-accepted ordering of their albums (or even chronologically, either, for that matter). It didn't blow me away on the first few listens - the first highlights don't really appear until tracks three and four, Half Dead and the title-track. Moon Over Goldsboro, In Hidden Places, Woke Up New and If You See Light are really great too - it seems my favourites come in pairs. Woke Up New is definitely my highlight of the album - lyrically it's as sombre as the rest of the album, but musically it's almost the exact opposite.
However, what was instantly evident was that the songwriting was incredible and that even if I wasn't a fan of every song, it'd be worth getting further into the band for the ones I do like. So far it's been going very well and I imagine there'll be many more posts about The Mountain Goats over the coming years.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £11.20 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
