a wonderful, poignant retrospective on songwriting & demo-ing albums & truth in fiction & i learned some beautiful new perspectives on my favorite songs. really interesting structure of a daily devotional meditation, though i do not have the fortitude to follow a routine and thus i read all 365 entries at once.

Just tore through the ebook version of the Advanced Readers Copy—thank you, NetGalley, for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review!—and I cannot wait to get my hands on the full, physical book when it comes out in December.

I've been a fan now for approximately a million years, and I was unprepared for how much I would love this book.

The whole thing is structured by day, as the title says, mixing in unreleased song lyrics and musings and biographical sketches. It's just a delight. I didn't expect the unreleased song lyrics would be my favorite part, but that's the beauty of John Darnielle, he's always giving us little presents. Reading this echos the experience of seeing one of his early sets, where he would thread little stories between songs, sometimes about what he was about to sing, sometimes about his memories under the bridge near the venue, sometimes random anecdotes about his writing process.

As always, Darnielle is a gifted storyteller. This book is no exception.

This Year by John Darnielle is a compilation of lyrics to three-hundred and sixty-five songs composed by one of the best (if not *the* best) living songwriter(s) in the world— alongside commentary, liner notes, or rambling recollections accompanying each lyric sheet; the collection even features rare artifacts in the form of previously unreleased material and tracks that have only been performed in a live setting.

An absolutely essential release for fans of The Mountain Goats, This Year is a piece of history, a reference guide, a devotional, a peek behind the curtain.

Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for the ARC!

John Darnielle takes his fucking extensive lyrical backlog, gives us a few never before seen lyrics, and sets the whole thing up like a Book of Days, with each day with its own lyrics and backstory, anywhere from a few sentences through a few pages of meditation on the lyrics. Would also recommend using it as a creative writing exercise where you react to the lyrics themselves as a creative practice. Well fucking done, my man.

“this isn’t a memoir, unless it is”

This is an incredible reflection on the staggering body of work that is the catalogue of songs by The Mountain Goats. From the history and influences, to alternate realities and tangents, Darnielle welcomes us into his life and work. I am a huge fan of Darnielle’s fiction and his voice here is as strong.

Great work for fans of the band, song writing, storytelling, and poetry. My only complaint was that this wasn’t longer. Of course I broke the rules and read it over a few days, and didn’t spread it out over the year.