#<- tag added b4 i completed my answer. but the only numbers i actually had to check were for 1 samuel 15:23

[unloneliest]

For the tmg album asks: The Life of the World To Come?

thank you so, so much for this ask - the life of the world to come was my first mountain goats album and remains the most important to me to this day <3

the best song on the album: matthew 25:21 speaks to grief in a way that is genuinely incomparable in my experience. i think it'd be a crime to suggest any other song off this album for best song.

my favorite song on the album: extremely difficult to answer. genesis 3:23 like. changed my life. i'd heard a few tmg songs before my best friend played me genesis 3:23 but wasn't Into The Goats. and since then i've been like. guy who almost exclusively listens to the mountain goats. it also had an insane impact on my original story. but if we're permitting bonus tracks too, the itunes bonus track, enoch 18:14, is like. one of the best songs in tmg's discography to me and i love it in a place beyond words.

my least favorite song on the album: my least favorite song on this album is ezekiel 7 and the permanent efficacy of grace, but like. it's still a song with complex layers of meaning and personal emotional connection for me, i very much so love and have cried to this song, the others just all outrank it.

the most overrated song on the album: psalms 40:2. people aren't wrong to love it as much as they do, but it's the song i see recognized the most off of this album and it's far from the best song on the album as a whole! no hate to psalms 40:2, just a wish that the rest of the album got More recognition.

most underrated: 1 samuel 15:23? i don't actually know the definitive lowest rated song on this album, but i also don't think i've ever seen any love for this track. it's not My Favorite of all the songs on this album? it's not top 3 for me? but it is like really important to me. it stands at the threshold to this album and stands by your side as you enter the emotional space the album occupies. it's a guardian of sorts to me, and i treasure it, and it brings me to some crystal clear memories of a beloved friend's home. the only other transitional guardian like it i can name in the discography is going to chino, which i love just as earnestly.

the banger of all bangers: i'd be lying if i didn't say psalms 40:2, straight up. to avoid repeat answers though i'm gonna shout out romans 10:9 which was my alarm clock when i worked at an airport starbucks for the 3:30 am shift and was getting at most 3 hours of sleep at a time but frequently less.

rate from 0-10: ten. i love you the life of the world to come.