Transcendental Youth

Transcendental Youth is the fourteenth full-length studio album by The Mountain Goats. It was released on October 2, 2012.

This album includes songs about Amy Winehouse, Frankie Lymon, Judas Iscariot, and Scarface’s Diaz Brothers, but it devotes the same amount of reverent attention in other songs to nameless narrators in the middle of emotional crisis points. It also features a return of Mountain Goats character Jenny, who rode a motorcycle into the sunset in 2002’s All Hail West Texas.

Additionally, it is the first Mountain Goats album to make use of a horn section, with arrangements by Matthew E. White.

This album is best summed up by John Hodgman in Merge’s original album release announcement:

“TRANSCENDENTAL YOUTH is full of songs about people who madly, stupidly, blessedly won’t stop surviving, no matter who gives up on them.”