The Mountain Goats- Tallahassee (2002)
Ok, so I realized that I have this blog, which I started to fulfill an assignment for my 4D Visual Dynamics class at CCA. I made one (sort of ridiculous) post 4 years ago, and I haven't really though of it much since then. I think it's time to change that. In what will be (hopefully) the first of many, many posts, I will discuss some of the things that are important to me. In this particular case, I will discuss music.
This is the first post in a series that will discuss, in no particular order, my favorite albums of the decade from 2000 to 2009. This particular post will be about the album Tallahassee by The Mountain Goats.
This album is one of four Mountain Goats albums (Tallahassee, The Sunset Tree, Get Lonely, and Heretic Pride) that I got from my friend Doug's hard drive a couple years ago. And yes, I know this is essentially the same as illegally downloading the albums, which is tantamount to stealing. I intend to make amends by buying All Hail West Texas as soon as I get a job, as well as going to see the band the next time they play the Bay Area. I might even buy a t-shirt. I prefer buying albums, when I can afford it. But I can't always afford it.
I've had these four albums on my iTunes and iPod and have listened to them mostly when they've come up on shuffle. I have always enjoyed the songs on these albums when they come up, but I have never paid much attention to them. And since I hadn't really listened to any of the albums in their entireties, they all sort of bled together in my mind. But recently, I decided to listen to each album from beginning to end in order to understand each as an entity unto itself. And during that process, I realized that this particular album stands out amongst the the others to me.
Tallahassee is the first Mountain Goats album released by a well-known label (4AD) and is, apparently, the first Mountain Goats album to be recorded by a full band in a professional recording studio. This doesn't really affect my opinion of the album much, as I only have limited experience listening to John Darnielle's previous, boom-box-recorded albums (someone at UC Berkeley played the aforementioned All Hail West Texas in the printshop for me one time. That's about it). Mainly, the reason this album stands out so much to me is because it encapsulates one of my favorite concepts: the combination of something beautiful with something depressing (and maybe with a little bit of humor thrown in for good measure). One of my favorite quotes from any form of media is when Roberto Benigni's character in Down By Law says to Tom Waits, "It's a sad and beautiful world." (Check out that scene here.) Something about the somewhat absurd combination of those two seemingly contradictory concepts has always appealed very strongly to me, and I feel as if this album does a wonderful job of illustrating that combination.
This album is, essentially, a concept album about the failing marriage of two characters that John Darnielle (the main Mountain Goat) had designated as "the alpha couple." The album is a continuation and deeper exploration of those characters, who had initially been introduced in previous songs from older albums. Disintegrating relationships and divorce are subjects that have been particularly fascinating to me (don't ask why. And no, I've never been married, let alone divorced), so I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that I like this album. But there's more to this album than just a good concept; this album does a wonderful job of evoking the weird, fragile line between "horribly depressing" and "utterly beautiful."
The main focus of the songs is (as seems to always be the case with Darnielle) on the lyrics. And this is almost definitely the best collection of his lyrics that I have ever heard. He does a masterful job of encapsulating the enormity of the emotions involved in a failing relationship. He does this both through the overall story arc of the album and the individual songs. In fact, some of the most effective elements of the album are found within the mundane lyrical details about such subjects as watching TV ("Game Shows Touch Our Lives") and dealing with transportation issues ("See America Right"). And the album is full of great, unusual turns of phrase (one of my favorites being "We do our best vampire routines/As we suck the dying hours dry" in "Alpha Rats Nest") and simple, direct sentiments that manage to evoke powerful emotions (the repetition of the phrase "All of them, all of them" in "Idylls of the King"). But as great as the lyrics are, they are not solely responsible for the "sad and beautiful world" of this album; the music is itself quite sad and very, very pretty.
While this album is, as I previously mentioned, the first real "full band" album by the Mountain Goats, it is still very much based around Darnielle's (usually acoustic) guitar and voice. His strumming and singing is embellished throughout with little touches of percussion, bass, keyboards, etc. The music perfectly complements the lyrics by mirroring their simple, direct yet carefully constructed nature. And just as the lyrics have their unusual, delightful little moments, so does the music. The deceptively pretty piano on "No Children", the marimbas and bells on "Idylls of the King", and the full-band push of "Oceanographer's Choice" all serve to accentuate and enhance the lyrical concepts behind those songs. I find it a bit unusual that I enjoy the music on this album as much as I do because I have not found myself interested in this type of (acoustic plus etc.) music very often in recent months. For whatever reason, my personal tastes lately have shifted towards other kinds of music lately (which is not to say that I've abandoned this style altogether), so I believe it speaks to how well-executed the music on this album is that it is able to affect me as it has at this particular time. I believe this is in large part due to Darnielle's excellent use of melody (even if it's delivered in his 'love-it-or-hate-it' bleat of a voice).
The best illustration of the effectiveness (and affectiveness) of this album can be found in a four song sequence in the the middle of the album beginning with the song "Idylls of the King". As anyone who has ever spoken with me at length about music (or art or movies or almost anything else) can tell you, I am borderline-obsessed with how things that exist in sequence relate to one another and flow from one to the next. I am and have always been a sucker for a well-sequenced album, and the arrangement and succession of these four songs is a large part of why I enjoy the album. Not only are these four songs probably my favorite four songs on the album (though a Strong case can be made for the final two songs, "Oceanographer's Choice" and "Alpha Rats Nest"), they are four songs that complement each other extremely well. The pretty, sad resignation of "Idylls of the King" leads perfectly into the hilariously painful bitterness of the album's standout track, "No Children" (I love this song. It makes me feel so bad and so good at the same time). "See America Right" follows with its vaguely "Roadrunner"-ish music and lyrical perversion of the romantic notion of travel and the open road. Finally, "Peacocks" perfectly caps this sequence with its gentle guitars illuminating the sleepy (or perhaps boozy), confused lyrics. These four songs contain within themselves individually and collectively all of the best qualities of the album.
As anyone who has ever been in love can probably tell you, love is, if nothing else, very, very weird. It is never quite as idyllic and perfect as some love songs make it seem (though sometimes it feels like it is). And it's never really as awful as breakup songs would lead you to believe (though don't tell that to anyone going through a breakup). The truth, as is usually the case with that ever elusive concept, falls somewhere between those two extremes. And this albums does a wonderful job of illustrating the strange, exhaustingly contradictory emotions experiences found within that place. And yes, it tilts towards the negative end of the relationship spectrum (it is, after all, an album about a failing marriage), but it shows that even in those horrible experiences that accompany the process of love dying, there are some recollections of that love's past abundance. There is something to be said for the weird duality of resentment and longing that can be found in a failing, codependent relationship. It's worth noting that I can't find any evidence that the couple ever actually gets divorced at any point in the album. They both seem as if they would rather bring about their mutual destruction rather than split up.
The album ends with the alpha couple fantasizing about their house burning down. But even in this morose, spiteful finale, they exclaim, "Open your mouth up and sing for me now/And I will sing for you." So even as they lament and revel in the destruction they have wrought on one another, they acknowledge how their existence is still essentially and necessarily a shared and mutually dependent one. That is, in my opinion, a wonderfully succinct explanation of the awfulness and wonderfulness inherent in love. And that is why this is a great album.
This is the first post in a series that will discuss, in no particular order, my favorite albums of the decade from 2000 to 2009. This particular post will be about the album Tallahassee by The Mountain Goats.
This album is one of four Mountain Goats albums (Tallahassee, The Sunset Tree, Get Lonely, and Heretic Pride) that I got from my friend Doug's hard drive a couple years ago. And yes, I know this is essentially the same as illegally downloading the albums, which is tantamount to stealing. I intend to make amends by buying All Hail West Texas as soon as I get a job, as well as going to see the band the next time they play the Bay Area. I might even buy a t-shirt. I prefer buying albums, when I can afford it. But I can't always afford it.I've had these four albums on my iTunes and iPod and have listened to them mostly when they've come up on shuffle. I have always enjoyed the songs on these albums when they come up, but I have never paid much attention to them. And since I hadn't really listened to any of the albums in their entireties, they all sort of bled together in my mind. But recently, I decided to listen to each album from beginning to end in order to understand each as an entity unto itself. And during that process, I realized that this particular album stands out amongst the the others to me.
Tallahassee is the first Mountain Goats album released by a well-known label (4AD) and is, apparently, the first Mountain Goats album to be recorded by a full band in a professional recording studio. This doesn't really affect my opinion of the album much, as I only have limited experience listening to John Darnielle's previous, boom-box-recorded albums (someone at UC Berkeley played the aforementioned All Hail West Texas in the printshop for me one time. That's about it). Mainly, the reason this album stands out so much to me is because it encapsulates one of my favorite concepts: the combination of something beautiful with something depressing (and maybe with a little bit of humor thrown in for good measure). One of my favorite quotes from any form of media is when Roberto Benigni's character in Down By Law says to Tom Waits, "It's a sad and beautiful world." (Check out that scene here.) Something about the somewhat absurd combination of those two seemingly contradictory concepts has always appealed very strongly to me, and I feel as if this album does a wonderful job of illustrating that combination.
This album is, essentially, a concept album about the failing marriage of two characters that John Darnielle (the main Mountain Goat) had designated as "the alpha couple." The album is a continuation and deeper exploration of those characters, who had initially been introduced in previous songs from older albums. Disintegrating relationships and divorce are subjects that have been particularly fascinating to me (don't ask why. And no, I've never been married, let alone divorced), so I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that I like this album. But there's more to this album than just a good concept; this album does a wonderful job of evoking the weird, fragile line between "horribly depressing" and "utterly beautiful."
The main focus of the songs is (as seems to always be the case with Darnielle) on the lyrics. And this is almost definitely the best collection of his lyrics that I have ever heard. He does a masterful job of encapsulating the enormity of the emotions involved in a failing relationship. He does this both through the overall story arc of the album and the individual songs. In fact, some of the most effective elements of the album are found within the mundane lyrical details about such subjects as watching TV ("Game Shows Touch Our Lives") and dealing with transportation issues ("See America Right"). And the album is full of great, unusual turns of phrase (one of my favorites being "We do our best vampire routines/As we suck the dying hours dry" in "Alpha Rats Nest") and simple, direct sentiments that manage to evoke powerful emotions (the repetition of the phrase "All of them, all of them" in "Idylls of the King"). But as great as the lyrics are, they are not solely responsible for the "sad and beautiful world" of this album; the music is itself quite sad and very, very pretty.
While this album is, as I previously mentioned, the first real "full band" album by the Mountain Goats, it is still very much based around Darnielle's (usually acoustic) guitar and voice. His strumming and singing is embellished throughout with little touches of percussion, bass, keyboards, etc. The music perfectly complements the lyrics by mirroring their simple, direct yet carefully constructed nature. And just as the lyrics have their unusual, delightful little moments, so does the music. The deceptively pretty piano on "No Children", the marimbas and bells on "Idylls of the King", and the full-band push of "Oceanographer's Choice" all serve to accentuate and enhance the lyrical concepts behind those songs. I find it a bit unusual that I enjoy the music on this album as much as I do because I have not found myself interested in this type of (acoustic plus etc.) music very often in recent months. For whatever reason, my personal tastes lately have shifted towards other kinds of music lately (which is not to say that I've abandoned this style altogether), so I believe it speaks to how well-executed the music on this album is that it is able to affect me as it has at this particular time. I believe this is in large part due to Darnielle's excellent use of melody (even if it's delivered in his 'love-it-or-hate-it' bleat of a voice).
The best illustration of the effectiveness (and affectiveness) of this album can be found in a four song sequence in the the middle of the album beginning with the song "Idylls of the King". As anyone who has ever spoken with me at length about music (or art or movies or almost anything else) can tell you, I am borderline-obsessed with how things that exist in sequence relate to one another and flow from one to the next. I am and have always been a sucker for a well-sequenced album, and the arrangement and succession of these four songs is a large part of why I enjoy the album. Not only are these four songs probably my favorite four songs on the album (though a Strong case can be made for the final two songs, "Oceanographer's Choice" and "Alpha Rats Nest"), they are four songs that complement each other extremely well. The pretty, sad resignation of "Idylls of the King" leads perfectly into the hilariously painful bitterness of the album's standout track, "No Children" (I love this song. It makes me feel so bad and so good at the same time). "See America Right" follows with its vaguely "Roadrunner"-ish music and lyrical perversion of the romantic notion of travel and the open road. Finally, "Peacocks" perfectly caps this sequence with its gentle guitars illuminating the sleepy (or perhaps boozy), confused lyrics. These four songs contain within themselves individually and collectively all of the best qualities of the album.
As anyone who has ever been in love can probably tell you, love is, if nothing else, very, very weird. It is never quite as idyllic and perfect as some love songs make it seem (though sometimes it feels like it is). And it's never really as awful as breakup songs would lead you to believe (though don't tell that to anyone going through a breakup). The truth, as is usually the case with that ever elusive concept, falls somewhere between those two extremes. And this albums does a wonderful job of illustrating the strange, exhaustingly contradictory emotions experiences found within that place. And yes, it tilts towards the negative end of the relationship spectrum (it is, after all, an album about a failing marriage), but it shows that even in those horrible experiences that accompany the process of love dying, there are some recollections of that love's past abundance. There is something to be said for the weird duality of resentment and longing that can be found in a failing, codependent relationship. It's worth noting that I can't find any evidence that the couple ever actually gets divorced at any point in the album. They both seem as if they would rather bring about their mutual destruction rather than split up.
The album ends with the alpha couple fantasizing about their house burning down. But even in this morose, spiteful finale, they exclaim, "Open your mouth up and sing for me now/And I will sing for you." So even as they lament and revel in the destruction they have wrought on one another, they acknowledge how their existence is still essentially and necessarily a shared and mutually dependent one. That is, in my opinion, a wonderfully succinct explanation of the awfulness and wonderfulness inherent in love. And that is why this is a great album.
Labels: favorite albums 2000-2009, mountain goats, music
posted by Carlos Animals at 12:50 AM
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