Treat me nice. I'm homesick.

I grew up in Champaign-Urbana, a college town a little bigger than ours right in the middle of Illinois. I went to school there. I fell in love for the first time there and most of my best friends still live there. I grow more used to the idea that I live in Pennsylvania every day, but whenever I tell a joke nobody around here gets, and whenever I get a phone call from the 217 area code, I realize how much I miss my home.

John Darnielle understands.

John Darnielle writes music about what we all wish we still had. Sure, some of his songs are about relationships and cars and liquor and prison, but ultimately, everything that comes out of him is about somewhere in particular, some place that only exists in memory.

John, an acoustic guitar and an old Panasonic tape deck come together pretty often as The Mountain Goats; a one-man project bent on penning a song for each of the trials of modern existence. A little more than a decade ago, Darnielle began playing his singular songs to anyone who'd listen. Darnielle has more albums than there are hours in the day, it seems all of them featuring at least a couple exceptional tunes. But none is more affecting than last year's All Hail West Texas, 14 songs about missed opportunities, boundless love and longing for a past not so far gone.

All Hail West Texas starts out with its two least characteristic tracks, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton" and "Fall of the High School Running Back." Both songs paint beautiful narratives, but their somewhat impersonal subject matter doesn't quite fit in with the rest of West Texas.

With "Color In Your Cheeks," however, Darnielle begins spelling out his thesis. Over a simple guitar backing, John tells his tale of the meeting of a few desperate souls. Their confusion is tangible, and Darnielle conveys more with simpler words than practically anyone who's come before. He speaks of places all over the world, but makes it clear that nobody feels at home anywhere without some sympathetic souls around.

"Jenny" tells the tale of transience on a motorcycle and "Fault Lines" namedrops British produce and Belgian chocolates while explaining how broken people can get despite their surroundings. The stunning "Riches and Wonders" gets at the impermanence of places, as Darnielle describes a seemingly perfect situation that fails to satisfy before pleading, "I want to go home / but I am home."

Unquestionably the most direct song on All Hail West Texas, "The Mess Inside" is also perhaps the best. Describing a broken love still in progress and the steps people can take to fix the unfixable, the result is heartbreaking and it's maybe the ultimate testament to Darnielle's power. On a lousy tape deck with just a guitar behind him, he creates something universal and absolute.

I drove a few hours to see The Mountain Goats play in a little club last spring, and after Darnielle asked the crowd for a cigarette, someone in the back of the room piped up "Don't smoke, you're the best songwriter ever!" It might sound like hyperbole to the uninitiated, but when you hear John Darnielle tell his stories, it's not so hard to believe. Every song on All Hail West Texas speaks to something inside us all, and even with all that tape noise whirring in the background, John can make it feel okay to be away from home.