Sleepless.

I'm blogging on The Mountain Goats' new album All Eternals Deck until I feel like stopping.

Here's a verse from "Beautiful Gas Mask" about castles and kings:

we hold hands and we jump
and as we fall we sing
paupers hammering the walls of the castle
going to meet the king

And here's one from "Age of Kings," about which I wrote two days ago.

halls of the stone tower in the foothills
why should we hide from anyone
held you in my arms for the first time that day
felt like god's anointed when you didn't push me away
gold light shining on so many things
in the age of kings

And here's an instruction not to sleep in the refrain of "Beautiful Gas Mask":

never sleep, remember to breathe deep
never sleep, remember to breathe, breathe deep

The refrain of "High Hawk Season," which I'll write about tomorrow:

rise if you're sleeping, stay awake
we are young supernovas and the heat's about to break

All Eternals Deck is not a concept album in the sense that all the songs are all about a particular place or group of people, but it's stuff like this -- the image of kings, injunctions not to sleep -- that seems to give the lyrics some thematic cohesion. On the other hand, could John Darnielle's way of writing give you similar connections across any random collection of his songs? Anyways, catching these cross-references is changing my initial impression of the album as a tad disjointed.