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.

Two Thousand Seasons
The Mountain Goats Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?
Whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death?
For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony?
One hopes that the destroyers aspiring to extinguish us
Will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success
The last imbecile that dreams such dreams is dead
Killed by the saviors of his dreams

How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of the song 'Two Thousand Seasons' by The Mountain Goats evoke a sense of despair about the state of the world. The question posed is how did humanity get to a point where they have become mere instruments of destruction and reflectors of death? The reference to mirrors is interesting because it suggests that we are not the ones actively causing destruction, but rather we are passive observers reflecting and mirroring the actions of those who seek to destroy us. It's a commentary on the powerlessness of the individual in the face of larger forces at play.

Whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death? This line highlights the idea that there are those who view death and destruction as a means of achieving some sort of goal or ideal. It's a stark reminder that the way we choose to reflect our world has a deep impact on the way we see ourselves and the role we play in society. The question of 'whom' suggests that there are particular individuals or groups that we might be trying to impress or appease with our reflections of death.

The final lines of the verse offer a glimmer of hope, but it's not necessarily a hopeful message. The idea that the destroyers might feel some sort of remorse at their 'fantastic success' is a bleakly optimistic view of the power of empathy. The last line is perhaps the most poignant - the imbecile that dreams such dreams is dead, killed by the saviors of his dreams. This suggests that those who dream of destruction and aspire to reflect their people's death will ultimately be the ones to suffer the consequences of that destruction. The saviors of their dreams might be the very thing that destroys them.

Line by Line Meaning

How have we come to be mere mirrors to annihilation?
How did we get to a point where our only purpose is to reflect destruction and ruin?

Whom do we aspire to reflect our people's death?
Who are we trying to impress by showcasing the deaths of our own people?

For whose entertainment shall we sing our agony?
Who benefits from our suffering and pain when we express it through our art?

One hopes that the destroyers aspiring to extinguish us Will suffer conciliatory remorse at the sight of their own fantastic success
It's possible that those who aim to eradicate us might regret their actions when they realize the extent of their accomplishment and the destruction they've caused.

The last imbecile that dreams such dreams is dead Killed by the saviors of his dreams
Those who foolishly hold onto harmful beliefs will eventually face the consequences of their actions. In this case, someone who held onto destructive aspirations was eliminated by those who sought to put an end to those harmful ideas.

Contributed by Jordyn P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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