Let's start with an exemplary case - and one of my persistent favourites. 'Absolute Lithops Effect' is a modest and unassuming little song that pops up as the last track of an album rich in highlights. It has a simple core idea which is broached and developed in the most straightforward ways over just a couple of minutes and - like almost all the early Mountain Goats' recordings - could barely have been more crudely laid down for posterity: simple guitar and voice committed to tape on a boombox whose ailing machinery can clearly be heard throughout. Things have got much more sophisticated and ambitious of late, but for many this is still the band's true sound. That is, the sound of no band at all. The song's structure is also characteristically plain. These days, JD is capable of a masterful middle eight, but he doesn't want shade or variety here. A shift of tone or perspective would detract from the tightly focused mood he is after, so we simply get verse/
Some songs by John Darnielle