The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by… Read Full Bio ↴The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whatever musicians he surrounds himself with, which means that while the soundscape may change from project to project, the overall tone and feel of Darnielle's work remains remarkably consistent. At his best, he writes finely observed, slightly surreal, impressionistic vignettes that manage to mix life as we live it with life as we wish we could live it, and as such he has more in common with a novelist than he does with the typical singer/songwriter, which is fitting, as he's also a published author. Darnielle's early Mountain Goats releases were lo-fi, cassette-recorded efforts cut with a rotating lineup of musicians, such as 1995's Nine Black Poppies and 2000's The Coroner's Gambit. By 2005's The Sunset Tree, his recordings had become cleaner and less cluttered, but his characters studies were just as vivid, and as the Mountain Goats finally cohered into a stable lineup (with Darnielle joined by Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster), they recorded tuneful, thematically unified albums such as Beat the Champ (2015) and Goths (2017) that ranked with their finest work.
Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year later, Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining as prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers -- John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan -- helming various tracks. That year the band was also handpicked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England, but they were ultimately unable to appear due to scheduling issues.

Peacocks
The Mountain Goats Lyrics

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I hear them squeal
I see them preen
Fans all spread out
Neat and clean

Grab hold of the morning
Head out to the porch
Feel the wind stopping

Feel the sun scorch

I fear for my safety
You can see it in my eyes
In an hour or two
We will rise

Then a sharp breeze kicks up
I hug myself hard
How come there's peacocks
In the front yard?

Sun's all prickly
On my neck
When the helicopter passes
We both hit the deck

Hands grasping and groping
Seizing opportunity right where it lies

The sky will fall
We will rise

Overall Meaning

The Mountain Goats' "Peacocks" is a song about the cycle of life, particularly the idea that even in times of stress or chaos, the natural world and its inhabitants continue on with their regular habits and routines. The opening lines describe the titular peacocks preening and spreading their feathers in a display of beauty, unaffected by the singer's concerns. The singer then steps outside and feels the wind and sun, still rising and setting according to nature's schedule despite his own worries.

The song takes a darker turn in the next verse, as the singer admits to fearing for his safety and anticipating a moment when "we will rise." It's unclear what this means - whether the singer is part of some larger group or movement, is preparing for a personal crisis, or is simply acknowledging the inevitability of change. But as he muses over these anxieties, a sharp breeze blows and he's suddenly confronted with the surreal sight of peacocks in his front yard. The juxtaposition of these regal birds with the singer's more mundane worries adds to the song's overall sense of disorientation and confusion.

The final lines of "Peacocks" return to a sense of grandeur and possibility, as the singer describes "grasping and groping" for opportunity in the face of uncertain times. It's a fittingly open-ended conclusion to a song that touches on so many different emotions and themes - fear, hope, confusion, and wonder all balance each other out in this brief but evocative track.

Line by Line Meaning

I hear them squeal
I can hear the peacocks making noise.

I see them preen
I can see the peacocks grooming themselves.

Fans all spread out
Their feathers are spread out, creating a fan-like shape.

Neat and clean
The peacocks are well-groomed and don't have any dirt or debris on them.

Grab hold of the morning
Taking advantage of the opportunity to start the day.

Head out to the porch
Going outside to sit and relax for a bit.

Feel the wind stopping
Noticing the wind has died down.

Feel the sun scorch
Feeling the heat from the sun on the skin.

I fear for my safety
The artist is scared for their well-being.

You can see it in my eyes
The fear is evident in the artist's expression.

In an hour or two
Something is going to happen soon.