| The Mountain Goats – Oceanographer's Choice Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Although I think a lot of people interpret the physicality of what's going on as rough sex, I think it's actually straight up spousal abuse that culminates in the Alpha male drowning his wife. In fact, it's predicted (or premeditated) in "No Children": "I am drowning, there is no sign of land You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand And I hope you die I hope we both die" The "Oceanographer's Choice" refers to the fact that he chooses to kill them both by drowning. Examining the final words of the song: "Look at that, would you look at that? The way the ceiling starts to swerve What will I do when I don't have you? When I finally get what I deserve" Why is the ceiling swerving? Because his wife is looking up from underneath the water in the bathtub. This leads into the next song on the album "Alpha Rats Nest" that refers to the Alpha male burning the house to the ground with him and his wife's lifeless body in it. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Oceanographer's Choice Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Although I think a lot of people interpret the physicality of what's going on as rough sex, I think it's actually straight up spousal abuse that culminates in the Alpha male drowning his wife. In fact, it's predicted (or premeditated) in "No Children": "I am drowning, there is no sign of land You are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand And I hope you die I hope we both die" The "Oceanographer's Choice" refers to the fact that he chooses to kill them both by drowning. Examining the final words of the song: "Look at that, would you look at that? The way the ceiling starts to swerve What will I do when I don't have you? When I finally get what I deserve" Why is the ceiling swerving? Because his wife is looking up from underneath the water in the bathtub. This leads into the next song on the album "Alpha Rats Nest" that refers to the Alpha male burning the house to the ground with him and his wife's lifeless body in it. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Old College Try Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I think what's really missing from the prior interpretations is that this song really is not hopeful. This is the Alpha male's absolute last attempt to make this irreparably broken thing work. It's not a compromise. It's a fatalistic acceptance that their love is more important than their lives. "But I will walk / Down to the end with you / If you will come / All the way down with me" It's important to note the use of the word "down" in relation to where their going and to know what the Alpha male is referring to by "the end." Many songs relating to the Alphas refer to them moving either up or down vertically (or pretending to move up while actually moving downward). In this song, the end of their relationship is _worse_ than where they are now, as denoted by the downward movement. "From the entrance to the exit / Is longer than it looks from where we stand" He's pleading a bit. The end of the marriage (or more likely, their lives) is farther away than she thinks it is. "In the weak last gasp of the evening's dying light In the way those eyes I've always loved illuminate this place Like a trashcan fire in a prison cell Like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell" Here he compares the marriage and/or his life to both a prison and the entrance to hell. However, he compares her eyes to two things that are in some way hopeful or welcoming: fire and searchlights. These things both point upwards to a place that he values as being better than where he is. |
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| The Mountain Goats – Have to Explode Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| @artisan117: I think that line is grouped together with the line immediately preceding it. He's remembering their experiences at the Ritz-Carlton in Jamaica, which was most likely where they honeymooned. The rust colored stains make me think he's referring to their first sexual encounters. Although it was surprising to think of the Alphas as being chaste prior to marriage, it makes sense you consider that both of them feel as though no one else could possibly love them, most likely because no one else ever has. "Name one thing about us two anyone could love." | |
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