The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whomever he chooses to work with at the moment, which means the sound may change from project to project, but the overall tone and feel of his work remains remarkably consistent. Darnielle writes finely observed, impressionistic vignettes that blend a clear, realistic sense of detail with mildly surreal imaginings, giving his work a literary flavor that suits his status as a songwriter who is also a successful novelist. His early Mountain Goats releases were lo-fi, cassette-recorded efforts cut with a rotating cast 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 character studies were just as vivid. As the Mountain Goats 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 Jenny from Thebes (2023) that ranked with their finestwork.