The Life of the World to Come is the 12th album by the Mountain Goats, released on October 6, 2009.[1] The third track, "Genesis 3:23", was released as a free download via the band's website on July 28. The album peaked at #110 on the Billboard Top 200 albums on its chart debut.
Continuing in their exploration of religious themes, The Life of the World to Come is composed of twelve tracks, each one inspired by (and titled after) a single verse of the Christian Bible. The album's title comes from a line of the Nicene Creed.[2]
Early copies of the album sold via Rough Trade's physical and online stores featured a bonus CD-R, The Life of the World in Flux. It contains early drafts of most of songs which appears on the main album and some that do not, and stylistically resembles both the band's pre-2002 albums and the 2005 Come, Come to the Sunset Tree LP.[citation needed]