Hidden Gems #3: "Pale Green Things" by The Mountain Goats

   Welcome to Hidden Gems where we look at songs that were overlooked either because it was from a lesser known artist, it was a deep album cut, or it failed to catch on. Today we are going to look at "Pale Green Things" by The Mountain Goats. The Mountain Goats are driven mainly by John Darnielle. John Darnielle is a fantastic songwriter whose writing manages to make intensely personal subjects feel universal. The Mountain Goats made one of the greatest albums of all time with The Sunset Tree, the album that our song comes off of.

  To fully understand and appreciate "Pale Green Things", we have to talk about the album it inhabits. The Sunset Tree is about John Darnielle's real stepfather, who was abusive to young John. Most of the album is either about Darnielle trying to forget his stepfather ("You or Your Memory"), or find respites from him. ("This Year") The stepfather is mostly on the fringes of this album, a presence that is always felt but not always seen. "Pale Green Things" is the album closer.

  "Pale Green Things" is about John hearing of his Stepfather's death. It starts with a memory of going to the race track with his stepfather: "Went down to the racetrack. Riding with the windows down, shortly after your first heart attack." He details his stepfather staring out into the track while timing the horses workouts. "Casting your gaze out to no man's land. Sometimes I'll meet you out there, lonely and frightened, flicking my tongue out at the wet leaves."

  In the last verse, he tells of hearing of his stepfather's death. There's not much I can do to enhance the lyrics, so I will just leave them here: "My sister called at 3 AM, just last December. She told me how you'd died at last. At last? That morning at the racetrack was one thing I remembered. I turned it over in my mind, like a living Chinese finger trap. Seaweed in Indiana sawgrass, pale green things, pale green things." This is a song full of complicated emotions. The memory of the racetrack confuses and entraps him the more he thinks about it. The memory is as perplexing as finding  seaweed in Indiana sawgrass.

  The instrumentation of the song keeps all the focus on John. There's a strumming of his guitar, and the occasional strings used to great effect.

  The song's contrast with the album opener "You or Your Memory", where he tries to forget his Stepfather, is a great way to end this album. This is a beautiful song, and I highly suggest everyone reading this has a chance to listen to it. "Pale Green Things"