i have been listening to a lot of the Mountain Goats and of Montreal....
i think theyre both fantastic.. i first heard of Montreal several years ago when i was starting high school. i remember listening to some of their songs several times and thoroughly enjoying them but at that point i still wasnt ready to explore all of the discography (i am really slow at doing that in general and tend to only want to listen to the same "safe" songs over and over), so i was really only aware of the "Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" album which left a strong impression on me
i really like their first album "Cherry Peel".. the song "Don't Ask Me to Explain" touched my heart almost immediately just from the lyrics

for the Mountain Goats, ive mostly been listening to "The Sunset Tree" album and a few other songs from various albums, but i am also very much in love with the "Dark in Here" album. i cant get over how well crafted the lyrics are.. this goes for previous albums as well, and i have been really enjoying listening to songs like "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod", "Lion's Teeth", and "Bleed Out" (the entire "Bleed Out" album is worth a listen if you like this genre..)
i'd like to attend a concert for the Mountain Goats sometime. i think it is possible enough for me.. ah, and there should even be some oc art i did two years ago or so with some of the lyrics from "No Children" written on it, haha..

what else have i been listening to? when the latest mitski album 'The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We' came out four months ago, i listened to it as soon as i could bring myself to, but now i am trying to listen again more intently and absorbing it.. im very familiar with her past albums, especially 'Bury Me at Makeout Creek' the most. i remember when i was in high school, i listened to the album a little too much and cried during passing periods because i could see myself in the themes of suicidalism in the lyrics.
the mitski in her newest album feels more mature and almost that she has found more peace with herself in a few ways.. i have been thinking about how she has structured these songs.. "I Don't Like My Mind" has such a different singing style than we have become accustomed to. is it like a ballad? it feels like a lament, and she is crying out into the open air. "I'm Your Man" and "The Deal" also stood out to me very much. mitski has talked before about how she doesnt feel interested in being seen as a "sad girl musician" kind of artist, and i recognize that she doesnt want her songs or her general vibe to feel like depression or misery or encourage romanticizing sadness. so it feels more meaningful to me when she does release a song as apologetic and regretful as "I'm Your Man" with these lyrics:

I'm sorry I'm the one you love
No one will ever love me like you again
So when you leave me, I should die
I deserve it, don't I?

like "I'm Your Man" and "The Deal", "Star" is another song on this album that starts out quiet and keeps building to a slow crescendo.. she really enjoys to structure the songs like this, and it feels more like spoken poetry or a soft lullaby to me. its also very short. i like the imagery in it very much, and it is easy for me to understand the feelings mitski put in the song about how grateful she is for finding her love. though that love is gone now, like a star is gone, she feels it is worth holding onto it because of how it changed her.. and she keeps asking over and over if it is worth holding onto.

a lot of the instrumentation and style of this album reminded me of mitskis first album, 'Lush' specifically with some of the more chaotic elements i heard in "When Memories Snow" and the previously mentioned crescendoes where many instruments would layer over each other. its so cool and i like it but it might not be as popular with fans who have only listened to her most famous songs and her more recent albums. i feel excited that this album marks a divergence from the pop-like style of her previous album, though i really liked that one, i like to see her experiment more.