This Year

This Year
	;
Album	The Sunset Tree
Released	2005
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:52
Previous Track	Broom People
Next Track	Dilaudid

This Year is the third song on the album The Sunset Tree. The song has an official music video directed by Andy Bruntel, which can be viewed here.

Lyrics

I broke free on a Saturday morning
I put the pedal to the floor
Headed north on Mills avenue
And listened to the engine roar

My broken house behind me and good things ahead
A girl named Cathy wants a little of my time
Six cylinders underneath the hood crashing and kicking
Aha, listen to the engine whine

I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me

I played video games in a drunken haze
I was seventeen years young
Hurt my knuckles punching the machines
The taste of scotch rich on my tongue

And then Cathy showed up and we hung out
Trading swigs from a bottle all bitter and clean
Locking eyes, holding hands
Twin high maintenance machines

I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me

I drove home in the California dusk
I could feel the alcohol inside of me hum
Pictured the look on my stepfather's face
Ready for the bad things to come
I down shifted as I pulled into the driveway
The motor screaming out stuck in second gear
The scene ends badly as you might imagine
In a cavalcade of anger and fear

There will be feasting and dancing
In Jerusalem next year

I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

"This is a song about how sometimes you are living in a house and you're in high school and your stepfather is abusing your mother and you, and it really sucks. You have to take a lot of drugs to deal with that, right, but you don't have to, I should say. But you probably do. And when you do, they make you feel marginally better but the main thing that makes you feel better is the company of other people who are as damaged as you are or will shortly become as damaged as you are, and you can sense it, because there is an internal sensor if you bear some damage, you have this sensor that says 'That person is either damaged or is getting there, and I think I will hang out with her until things get a little brighter.' I play this for a lovely person who wore a cape to school." -- 2011-03-30 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY

Things Referenced in this Song

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

Videos of this Song

The Sunset Tree

Track list: "You or Your Memory" • "Broom People" • "This Year" • "Dilaudid" • "Dance Music" • "Dinu Lipatti's Bones" • "Up the Wolves" • "Lion's Teeth" • "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod" • "Magpie" • "Song for Dennis Brown" • "Love Love Love" • "Pale Green Things"
Come, Come to the Sunset Tree: "Collapsing Stars" • "High Doses #2" • "The Day the Aliens Came (Hawaiian Feeling)"

Dilaudid EP
Track list: "Dilaudid" • "This Year" • "Collapsing Stars" • "Dilaudid" (Marrtronix version)

This Year

Contents

Lyrics

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

Things Referenced in this Song

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

Videos of this Song

Fan Feed

This Year

Album	The Sunset Tree
Released	2005
Artist	the Mountain Goats
Length	3:52
Previous Track	Broom People
Next Track	Dilaudid