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Awesome / the Mountain Goats

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  • Crowning Simile of Awesome: "Old College Try."
    In the way those eyes I've always loved illuminate this place
    Like a trashcan fire in a prison cell
    Like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell
  • The end of "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton."
    When you punish a person for dreaming his dream
    Don't expect him to thank or forgive you
    The best ever death metal band out of Denton
    Will in time both outpace and outlive you
    HAIL SATAN!
    HAIL SATAN, TONIGHT!
    HAIL SATAN! HAIL, HAIL! HAIL, HAIL!
  • "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?"
    Held under these smothering waves
    By your strong and thick-veined hand
    But one of these days I'm going to wriggle up on dry land.
  • The terminally ill narrator's refusal to feel sorry for himself in "Isaiah 45:23."
    And I won't get better but someday I'll be free
    'Cause I am not this body that imprisons me
  • The declaration in "This Year":
    I am gonna make it through this year, if it kills me.
    • John Darnielle was warmed to find out on Twitter that many, many people going through hard times play this song on New Year's.
  • The final verse from "Up the Wolves":
    I'm gonna bribe the officials
    I'm gonna kill all the judges
    It's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage
    Our mother has been absent ever since we founded Rome
    But there's gonna be a party when the wolf comes home
  • A live example - Craig Finn of The Hold Steady guested on an electric performance of "This Year" at the Bowery Ballroom. After the final lyric of "I am going to make it/ through this year/ if it kills me!" Darnielle unexpectedly title-dropped a Hold Steady album and recurring lyric - "And it almost killed me! It almost killed me!". And the crowd - and Craig Finn - go wild.
  • "Jenny" is a beautiful encapsulation of youthful idealism – it features a couple riding off into the sunset together on a motorcycle.
    You turned your headlamps toward the horizon
    We were the one thing in the galaxy God didn't have his eyes on
  • "Going to Georgia."
  • The music video for "The Legend of Chavo Guerrero" features the titular wrestling legend making an appearance and even showing off some moves! He's pretty spry for a fella in his mid-sixties. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment, considering that it meant a chance for John Darnielle to work with his childhood hero.
  • The surprisingly affecting outro of "Luna."
  • "Absolute Lithops Effect" has a definite air of determination, not just in the lyrics but the performance as well. Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment.
    After one blind season alone in here
    After one long, sweltering summer
    I'm going to find to exit
  • "Werewolf Gimmick" is this combined with Nightmare Fuel, since the song is a truly frightening Badass Boast from a Heel wrestler Becoming the Mask.
    Blood pooling on the canvas as the atmosphere gets hushed.
    Bring your heroes to the wolf den, watch them all get crushed.
    Get told to maybe dial it back backstage later on.
    Everyone still in this building right now is dead before the dawn!
  • "Dark in Here" is a quietly menacing Badass Boast about the narrator getting ready for a final showdown with his enemies.
    Did you leave your house in order when you came for me?
    Is this really where you meant to be?
    Just beyond your limits
    Find the new frontier
    I live in the darkness
    It's dark in here
  • "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod" is, like the majority of The Sunset Tree, about the narrator's abusive stepfather, but unlike Lion's Teeth, he is refusing to remain content, and is determined that his life will get better:
    And alone in my room
    I am the last of a lost civilization
    And I vanish into the dark
    And rise above my station
    Rise above my station

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