Tallahassee
the Mountain Goats
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This album was the one that made me fall head-over-heels for John Darnielle as a writer. The album tells the story of a recurring subject from many of his other albums, the Alpha Couple. In Tallahassee, the Alpha Couple love one another a great deal, and are happily moving in together. As the album progresses, the songs become darker, sadder. The couple begins to hate one another, and attempt to drink away their unhappiness. The album resolves with them making amends, until we next hear from them, at least.
What I love most about this album is the brutal honesty with which Darnielle tells this couple's story, and his own. I used to say that Darnielle's music mostly appealed to recovering drug addicts, but I've found that there is at least one song on this album for everyone who has emotions, no matter how seasoned and snobbish with music they may be. The album covers so many different stages of a relationship: the bright-eyed hope in "Southwood Plantation Road" (I am not gonna lose you, we are gonna stay married, in this house like a Louisiana graveyard, where nothing stays buried), to the spite and hatred of "No Children" (and I hope when you think of me years down the line, you can't find one good thing to say... and I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out, you'd stay the hell out of my way...), and the old-college try in, well, "Old College Try" (our love has never had a leg to stand on... but I will walk down to the end with you, if you will come all the way down with me...).
This album will rip your soul in half, and mend it all over again.
Listen to it, bitches.
What I love most about this album is the brutal honesty with which Darnielle tells this couple's story, and his own. I used to say that Darnielle's music mostly appealed to recovering drug addicts, but I've found that there is at least one song on this album for everyone who has emotions, no matter how seasoned and snobbish with music they may be. The album covers so many different stages of a relationship: the bright-eyed hope in "Southwood Plantation Road" (I am not gonna lose you, we are gonna stay married, in this house like a Louisiana graveyard, where nothing stays buried), to the spite and hatred of "No Children" (and I hope when you think of me years down the line, you can't find one good thing to say... and I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out, you'd stay the hell out of my way...), and the old-college try in, well, "Old College Try" (our love has never had a leg to stand on... but I will walk down to the end with you, if you will come all the way down with me...).
This album will rip your soul in half, and mend it all over again.
Listen to it, bitches.
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