Mountain Goats: The Sunset Tree (20th Anniversary edition) [4AD]

Why you'll love it

The 20th Anniversary Edition from 4AD comes newly remastered. The Sunset Tree scored 83 on Metacritic, the New York Times called it "extraordinary," and in 2025 Paste ranked it No. 50 among the greatest albums of the century so far.

This edition

• 20th Anniversary Edition
• Newly remastered for 2025

About the album

There are albums people like, and then there are albums people credit with getting them through high school, and The Sunset Tree firmly belongs to the second group. John Darnielle wrote it about the house he grew up in, the people inside it and especially his stepfather, and he made it in part after that man's passing in 2004; the album is dedicated to young people living with difficult adults at home. That sounds heavy, and in places it is, but Darnielle delivers it with so much energy, wit and stubborn hope that it plays as a record about surviving rather than suffering.

4AD put it out in April 2005, the ninth Mountain Goats album, with John Vanderslice producing and Peter Hughes on bass, and it opened the band up with piano, strings and fuller arrangements. At its heart is "This Year," the shout-along anthem with a chorus ("I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me") that has become a rallying cry at every Mountain Goats show since, alongside gems like "Dance Music" and "Up the Wolves." Metacritic scored it 83, the New York Times called it extraordinary, and Paste put it at No. 50 among the best albums of the century so far. Twenty years on, it remains the record we hand to anyone who needs to hear it, and they always say thanks.

On 4AD, a 20th Anniversary reissue of the 2005 album.