The Next Four Months

every time i hear this song i feel like my heart is breaking

Ok you guys, I think this song might be about drugs.

Drinking straws in toothpaste tubes: I don't get it. Drug people out there, do you know what that's all about?

Jay, I think you are onto something.

However, I think it's more than that. Little Michael; I think the lyrics really capture the slipping away of life that can go along with indulging in what at the beginning seems like not that bad of a habit... but not in a cheezy, trite way. The tone of the song is so believeable, and the music (especially the plonky piano) goes along quite well with the narrative. I think this ties in with the song cycle very well; the motif of escapism, the divide between feeling real feelings and denying/refusing them...

I like the juxtaposition of this song- the dreamy, happy melody and the sad sad story it tells. Just right.

"Drinking straws in toothpaste tubes"

I'm pretty sure it refers to a method of hiding contraband. [you'd fill up the straws, seal off the ends, and put them inside the toothpaste tubes].

every time i hear this song i think of being in high school and taking some vicodin pills before class...why four months, though?

To me, this song seems like it talks about adultery. The line that proves it quite well is the following: "We’re driving down the interstate, you’re feeling great, you scratch your wrist, and we pretend your kids, your husband, all you left does not exist. And in some motel that night we’re lying,"

Both of them feel like shit and is probably the reason why they started having the affair, and that's where the medical theme comes in. It might be a reference to drugs, but what is for sure is that they're doing it to forget the fact they are in the biggest shit situation of their lives.

Curious how Get Big is also about adultery, but from the viewpoint of the one who was betrayed rather than the cheater. This is most likely the same triangle of love that Next Four Months portrays. God, do I love Okkervil River.

I finally made my way into an Okkervil River song. "Little Michael". Talk about your childhood nostalgia.

Great song otherwise though. OR remains true to their original musical landscape here.

It always makes me think of Vicodin, too.

This song makes me think of the Great Gatsby, the way the music and lyrics are portrayed is so bitter and sad, it reminds me of Gatsby's impossible plight to live the dream he'd always hoped for. The song captures perfectly the feeling of two lovers trying desperately to be together, even thought they know it can't be. The line "And when I know were fucked, I'll half the pile and share my pills with you," shows that the hopless situation that these two are in, no longer even matters. "Because we've felt fully in our bodies, and we've felt totally alive, and were prepared to to float above this dirty bed where we both lay, where we lay lie lie," this line shows that they are beyond the fear of getting caught, that they have forgotten the lives they lived before, and want only to live in their reckless, irresponisble world, free of the depressing ties that once binded them. In a way it is slightly sickening, but at the same time it is beautiful, and horrendously tragic. It captures the feeling we all have, the desire to shirk our responsibilities and live in a realm of total ecstacy. The reference of drugs strengthens my thesis, as it adds to the underlying theme of trying to forget the turmoil of the two's ordinary lives, and attempting to live free of the burden of responsibility. Despit the obvious decadence of the song, i think it is one of the most beautiful, tragic love songs ever made, in the same way that the Great Gatsby is one of the most beuatiful, tragic love stories ever told.

i think the bit about 'little michael' means they actually accidentally left a toddler in the car on a hot day, with the windows rolled up... maybe their kid or something