This song is smoky and slow and tired. The lyrics in this, the live version, possibly the only version, are tired and strange and doubt themselves. And it's amazing It

This song is smoky and slow and tired. The lyrics in this, the live version, possibly the only version, are tired and strange and doubt themselves. And it's amazing It is what it sounds like. A song about burning yourself out of your own mind. I got five minutes sleep,

If you've never heard a picaresque song about people smugglers heading across country in a u-haul... well, now you have. Like the best Mountain Goats songs, this one is a

If you've never heard a picaresque song about people smugglers heading across country in a u-haul... well, now you have. Like the best Mountain Goats songs, this one is a cheerful knife to the heart, with a combination of tenderness and cruelty. The result is a gentle portrait of ungentle

It's amazing how dark and directionless this song sounds. The vocal is purposefully listless, the guitar work dissonant and uneven, and all of it adds to the effect of someone

It's amazing how dark and directionless this song sounds. The vocal is purposefully listless, the guitar work dissonant and uneven, and all of it adds to the effect of someone who is unconnected from reality and deeply exhausted about it. I worry about paranoia. This is a paranoid age, and

So, no song yesterday, or rather no song with a recording yesterday. This is a small delight and a curiosity, a song recorded just after Tallahassee but not released until

So, no song yesterday, or rather no song with a recording yesterday. This is a small delight and a curiosity, a song recorded just after Tallahassee but not released until it was posted on the Mountain Goats website a few years later. It's a rolling ballad about being in great

It's tough now to think of how this song made me feel the first time I heard it. it's become an old friend who has been there for me in

It's tough now to think of how this song made me feel the first time I heard it. it's become an old friend who has been there for me in all sorts of times, good and bad. The way the backing vocals burst in on in my life. The way

Sometimes things creep up on you. They become true over a course of enough time that by the time you realise it you're realising what has happened not what is

Sometimes things creep up on you. They become true over a course of enough time that by the time you realise it you're realising what has happened not what is happening. So it is with this song and the realisation that Mountain Goats have gone from being a band of

Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp is one of the lines of all time. This is an intense song of chaos, in the intense part of a

Your love is like a cyclone in a swamp is one of the lines of all time. This is an intense song of chaos, in the intense part of a relationship going bad. John's alpha couple have many twists and turns on their way to purgatory, but this one is

A driving bop, full of energy. Starts with stabbing Superman with a broadsword and goes up from there. This is full of energy, admittedly dark energy, and is a packed

A driving bop, full of energy. Starts with stabbing Superman with a broadsword and goes up from there. This is full of energy, admittedly dark energy, and is a packed fantasia of fraught things happening to fraught people. It's also... and even as I type this I'm not sure exactly

There is something delightfully sleazy about the instrumentation of this song. I'm getting a strong dose of PJ Harvey. More than that, this is a song with swagger in a

There is something delightfully sleazy about the instrumentation of this song. I'm getting a strong dose of PJ Harvey. More than that, this is a song with swagger in a way that feels new to Mountain Goats songs. The wild harmonica at the end gives this is feeling of a

A secret small love of mine: songs where someone sings la la la la We're wandering still further into Tallahassee, reaching what might be thought of as an upswing in

A secret small love of mine: songs where someone sings la la la la We're wandering still further into Tallahassee, reaching what might be thought of as an upswing in the dysfunctional relationship that is this couple. There is happiness here, albeit a desperate happiness kicking to stay afloat. I

It continues to interest me how much more complete Tallahassee feels as a sound for a band than the previous Mountain Goats albums, and band is the word here. There

It continues to interest me how much more complete Tallahassee feels as a sound for a band than the previous Mountain Goats albums, and band is the word here. There are at maximum three instruments playing at the same time here, not counting John's voice, and yet the sound is

In retrospect this song is a thumping great mission statement. It's the first track on one of the two most pivotal Mountain Goats albums, with All Hail West Texas being

In retrospect this song is a thumping great mission statement. It's the first track on one of the two most pivotal Mountain Goats albums, with All Hail West Texas being the perfection of the Guitar and buzzing tape recorder era, and Tallahassee being the start of the full band and

All right folks, it's taken us four months but we've reached Tallahassee. And we're starting off with one of the most genuinely wonderful songs on this album. An ode to

All right folks, it's taken us four months but we've reached Tallahassee. And we're starting off with one of the most genuinely wonderful songs on this album. An ode to exhausted but still kicking love. Toxic, poisoned, bleeding, but still real and powerful. And my god, is the instrumentation of

Technically this isn't a Mountain Goats song. It's instead a song by The Extra Glenns, a band consisting of John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno. But what it actually is is

Technically this isn't a Mountain Goats song. It's instead a song by The Extra Glenns, a band consisting of John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno. But what it actually is is a lovely bop with some honky tonk piano and delightful guitars. As for the narrative of this song, it's an

My Don't commit insurance fraud, it's not worth it song has people asking a lot of questions already answered by the song. In all seriousness, this is a delightful, ominous

My Don't commit insurance fraud, it's not worth it song has people asking a lot of questions already answered by the song. In all seriousness, this is a delightful, ominous song about love burning down, which is a common theme in this era of Mountain Goats. It's a song that

The summer came in carrying spring in its mouth is an incredible first line, and the rest of the song follows as poetic metaphor that starts from love but soars

The summer came in carrying spring in its mouth is an incredible first line, and the rest of the song follows as poetic metaphor that starts from love but soars into something elemental. There's an interesting thing happening with John's lyrics as time goes by. His content isn't getting more

I don't know, man. I think I'm tired. A long stretch of days, some good, some bad, with today as a good one that wore me out. It's meant when

I don't know, man. I think I'm tired. A long stretch of days, some good, some bad, with today as a good one that wore me out. It's meant when I came to my Mountain Goats song at the end of today it played over me and i didn't have

Hearing full or even partial band Mountain Goats from this period (this is another Devil in the Shortwave track) is a really interesting experience, because it feels like watching something

Hearing full or even partial band Mountain Goats from this period (this is another Devil in the Shortwave track) is a really interesting experience, because it feels like watching something emerge. This is true nowhere more than in this track, which starts off with simple guitar and strings and builds

There's something especially American about the aimless road trip, the small towns flitted through when you're going not towards but away, places that must have their own life but which

There's something especially American about the aimless road trip, the small towns flitted through when you're going not towards but away, places that must have their own life but which you only experience as lonely and quiet stops on the way towards you don't know what. One of the things

I'm not sure if this is the happiest song about getting a bloody injury, but the only competition I can think is Me And You Against The World by Space,

I'm not sure if this is the happiest song about getting a bloody injury, but the only competition I can think is Me And You Against The World by Space, and that's far less of a rousing folk ballad. This is a song about revelation at the wrong moment. The