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Genius Annotation

Closing track #14 on The Mountain Goats‘ twelfth full-length album All Hail West Texas.

Marking the end of All Hail West Texas, “Absolute Lithops Effect” leaves us with a breaking point, a catharsis, and an actual recognition that we do need to get out of here and we do need help. Arguments abound as to which of the album’s characters sings this song, but when we consider how unpleasant all of their situations are, we find it doesn’t matter. Whether this is Jeff or Cyrus or Jenny or William Stanaforth Donahue or the couple from “The Mess Inside” or whoever else, this is a quiet and understated but undeniable step forward for whichever of our unfortunate protagonists it’s about.

Lithops is a genus of plants distinguished by the fact that the plants, formed of a pair of leaves that grow outward from a central axis, take on a stone-like appearance to avoid getting eaten. This, of course, is pretty metaphorically resonant even if we’re just considering the reality of being a human in human society in general. What’s more relevant to this song, however, is that eventually, a new pair of stony leaves grow and displace the existing ones once they grow old, and once the new leaves have matured, yellow or white flowers grow up from the crack between the two leaves. The appearance isn’t unlike daisies growing from cracks in the pavement.

So if we consider the titular “absolute Lithops effect” to be the ultimate growth of a flower, we’ve reached our transformation point, where we can stop being something rigid and stony and allow the pretty parts of ourselves that we haven’t nourished to bloom.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What inspired the title "Absolute Lithops Effect"?
Genius Answer

On the episode of I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats about “Absolute Lithops Effect”, John Darnielle talks about the interest he had in cacti while living in a state similar to the song’s narrator:

A Lithops effect would be if something looks like it’s not growing, but it is, right? ‘Cause when you look at them–usually when you first see Lithops you already know what they are, so you will not be fooled–but they do look like little rocks in a cup; but they’re cacti. So what’s interesting about this song is I am talking… I’m telling a story, but the state of the dude is the state I was in when I started the Mountain Goats: my closest friends had moved to Central California, to Northern California; and I was living on the grounds of the hospital, and I had this boombox and a guitar, and I had bunch of little cacti. A dozen little cacti in plastic jars. I love cactus. They’re really profound, they speak to me. I don’t think I did have any Lithops, but I obsessed over cactus. I would read about them, go to the nurseries and ask questions, and wanted to start growing from seed, but that’s hard to do–especially if you live in an apartment. But yeah, so, I had these cacti and I was a guy living alone in a room sort of waiting for my life to begin. I was 24; 23 or 24. I was working–I could see that being my life: work twenty more years and then retire from the state and then have a second life. That was one thing I was thinking about doing. It was sort of a waiting station, and those are incredible places to be, ‘cause I think everybody goes through them no matter what it is you’re doing; you later look back and go “Oh, I was waiting for this to happen.”

What did The Mountain Goats say about "Absolute Lithops Effect"?
Genius Answer

John Darnielle before playing this song at Dan’s Silverleaf in Denton, TX on June 20, 2014:

This is a song about sitting alone in a room waiting for something to happen. A subject that’s most insufficiently addressed by pop music. You know, because not everybody really is going to find the one they love, but everybody is going to spend some time alone in a room waiting for something to happen.

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Release Date
February 19, 2002
Absolute Lithops Effect Covers
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