The Mountain Goats Have Written A New Album Entirely About Professional Wrestling

“Born down in El Paso, where the tumbleweeds blow,
To the middleweight champ of all Mexico.
Dad fought many bloody battles, and he raised four sons,
Chavo was the oldest one.”

So begins ‘The Legend Of Chavo Guerrero,’ the first single from the Mountain Goats’ incredible-sounding upcoming album. Out on April 3 in Australia, it’s called Beat The Champ, and will entirely comprise of songs about professional wrestling, making it a solid contender for best album ever recorded by anyone.

According to The AV Club, Goats frontman John Darnielle was a massive fan of pro wrestling growing up, and “wrote these songs to re-immerse myself in the blood and fire of the visions that spoke to me as a child, and to see what more there might be in them now that I’m grown.”

Chavo Guerrero was a real-life wrestler in the ’70s, and lots of the lyrics talk about how Darnielle idolised him as an escape from his abusive stepdad:

“He was my hero back when I was a kid,
You let me down, but Chavo never once did.
You called him names to try to get beneath my skin,
Now your ashes are scattered on the wind.”

Hopefully the rest of the album is as good as ‘Chavo Guerrero,’ because this song is a banger. Check it out:

Bonus: if sports-centric concept albums are your thing, you need to check out Sydney band You Beauty’s pearler of an album Jersey Flegg, the tale of a washed-up reserve-grade rugby league player who finds purpose, heartache and redemption when he falls in love with a TV host named Ann-Maree. It’s bloody beautiful.