2:48
Tallahassee, 2002
Written by John Darnielle
One of the most blackly funny breakup songs ever recorded ("I hope that our few remaining friends / Give up on trying to save us / I hope we come up with a failsafe plot / To piss off the dumb few that forgave us.") This song feels like it was written by someone drowning in poison and laughing about it. Over a bright, perky piano and upbeat strumming, Darnielle spits apocalyptic nihilism with a grin: "I hope you die / I hope we both die." It's a song about mutual destruction, sung as if it's a jaunty campfire tune. That contrast — the bouncy melody versus the scorched-earth lyrics — is exactly the Mountain Goats' magic trick. The narrator and his partner are long past reconciliation, reveling in their shared misery like doomed lovers in a cheap motel. "I am drowning / There is no sign of land," he declares, sounding more defiant than defeated. Darnielle's voice strains and cracks, but the delivery is gleeful, an exorcism by singalong. It's a portrait of broken love at its ugliest and most honest.
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