Identity Politique
I’ve decided to start self-identifying as a Mountain Goats fan, now. I don’t know why that seems so important to “officially” “declare,” but I’ve always, before, considered myself an appreciator of Jeff Darnielle’s brand of precocious, lo-fi folk music. Like many actual fans, I questioned his move to 4AD. Like others, I thought Tallahassee was not as solid as his earlier lo-fi work. Then Get Lonely happened. I’m not going to suggest that I got into this album at the appropriate moment in my life, but I could (and, this review on PFM suggests that I could make such an observation).
Anyway, thanks to the “magic” of the internets, I am listening to the stuff I missed between writing John Darnielle off as a sell-out and my encounter with his newest album. Somewhere around the third song on We Shall All Be Healed, I had my epiphany wrt my self-identification as a fan of the Mountain Goats. This whole experience, got me thinking, though, about what it means to be a fan, on a cognitive level.
