Mountain Goats - Tallahassee

Sep 13, 2006 19:51

I've been listening to this album for months now, and have only just now realized that it's a concept album, meaning that all songs on it, are about the same thing; the alpha couple. It's the story of a young married couple who are constantly on the verge of marital collapse, and drink themselves near to death.

It's interesting to now go read all the lyrics, after having heard these songs hundreds of times never really listening to the lyrics or putting them in context. There's an interesting website for it, and a quite a bit on wikipedia.

Some Samples...

  1. Tallahassee

  2. Window facing an ill-kept front yard
    Plums on the tree heavy with nectar
    Prayers to summon the destroying angel
    Moon stuttering in the sky like film stuck in a projector
    And you
    You

  3. First Few Desperate Hours

  4. We keep up the good fight
    We keep our spirits light
    But they draw like flies
    And there's a stomach-churning shift
    In the way the land lies
    And they lean like towers
    On a hillside struggling to stand
    Through these first few desperate hours
    Yeah

  5. Southwood Plantation Road

  6. I've got you
    You've got whatever's left of me to get
    Our conversations are like minefields
    No one's found a safe way through one yet
    I spend a lot of money
    I buy you white gold
    We raise up a little roof
    Against the cold
    On Southwood Plantation Road

  7. Game Shows Touch Our Lives

  8. I held onto you with a desperate strength
    With everything with everything in me
    And I handed you a drink of the lovely little thing
    On which our survival depends
    People say friends don't destroy one another
    What do they know about friends?

  9. The House That Dripped Blood

  10. Rip the varnish off the doors
    Dig up the laughing photographs
    They're here somewhere or other
    Take what you can carry
    But let me tell you brother
    Still waters go stagnant
    Bodies bloat
    And the cellar door is an open throat

  11. Idylls of the King

  12. How long will we ride this way about?
    How long 'til someone caves under the pressure?
    My dreams are haunted by armies armies of ghosts
    Faces too blurry to make out
    Numbers far too high to measure
    Your face like a vision straight out of Holly Hobby
    Late light drizzling through your hair
    Your eyes twin volcanoes
    Bad ideas dancing around in there

  13. No Children

  14. And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
    Someday burns down
    And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
    And I never come back to this town
    Again in my life
    I hope I lie
    And tell everyone you were a good wife
    And I hope you die
    I hope we both die

  15. See America Right

  16. Got on the bus half drunk again
    The driver glared at me
    Met up with you in Inglis
    Thumbed a ride to Cedar Key
    If we never make it back to California
    I want you to know I love you
    But my love is like a dark cloud full of rain
    That's always right there up above you

  17. Peacocks

  18. Grab hold of the morning
    Head out to the porch
    Feel the wind stopping
    Feel the sun scorch
    I fear for my safety
    You can see it in my eyes
    In an hour or two
    We will rise

  19. International Small Arms Traffic Blues

  20. Our love is like the border between Greece and Albania
    Our love is like the border between Greece and Albania
    Trucks loaded down with weapons
    Crossing over every night
    Moon yellow and bright
    There is a shortage in the blood supply
    But there is no shortage of blood
    The way I feel about you baby can't explain it
    You got the best of my love

  21. Have to Explode

  22. The stage is set
    Someone's going to do something someone else will regret
    I speak in smoke signals and you answer in code
    The fuse will have to run out sometime
    Something here will eventually have to explode
    Have to explode

  23. Old College Try

  24. Our love has never had a leg to stand on
    From the aspirins to the cross-tops to the Elevils
    But I will walk down to the end with you
    If you will come all the way down with me

  25. Oceanographer's Choice

  26. Thought I'd finally beat the feeling back
    It all came back today
    And then we fell down
    And we locked arms
    We knocked the dresser over as we rolled across the floor
    I don't mean it when I tell you
    That I don't love you any more

  27. Alpha Rats Nest

  28. Ah the lengthening hours in the refinery
    Belching fire into the sky
    We do our best vampire routines
    As we suck the dying hours dry
    The night is lovely as a rose
    If I see sunlight hit you
    I am sure that we'll both decompose

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