The countdown continues with two very different indie-rock records — one whose appeal is strongly tied to lyrics, the other more well … um … sonic.
46.
Album: Tallahassee — The Mountain Goats (4AD, 2002)
Songwriter John Darnielle has released some 16 albums under the Mountain Goats moniker since the mid-’90s, but Tallahassee was a breakthrough — a more polished record on a more prominent label than his hard-to-find and lo-fi earlier albums. It’s also a songwriting tour de force, a concept album about a couple that makes a cross-country move only to watch their relationship disintegrate. It’s set in the titular town, where plums grow heavy with nectar in the front yard, but in this paradise their love passes out on the couch and their house — no longer a home — drips blood. Tallahassee‘s mid-album peak, “No Children,” is so intensely dark it’s also intentionally comical. But the wordplay is dazzling throughout. Samples: “I am not going to lose you/We are going to stay married/In this house like a Louisiana graveyard/Where nothing stays buried.” “Our love is like the border between Greece and Albania/Trucks loaded down with weapons/Crossing over every night/Moon yellow and bright.”
Song Sample: “No Children”
