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Album of the Week: Mountain Goats "Beat the Champ"

Leave it to the Mountain Goats, hyper-literate, genre-defying and utterly iconoclastic, to make a concept album about old-timey wrestling. It's clearly a passion project of leader John Darnielle, and he emotes, squaks and growls his way through a unique and strange album telling stories of lonely fighters on the road, blurry local TV broadcasts, and high school gyms and murky back-rooms of a disappeared America. The album can be very soft and tender, and also loud and full of horns and guitars. It is truly something special. You can read Pitchfork's thoughts here.