Tallahassee

Mountain Goats: John Darnielle (vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, xylophone, bells); Peter Hughes (guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, shaker, background vocals).
Additional personnel includes: Franklin Bruno (guitar, piano).
Recorded at Tarbox Road Studios, Cassadaga, New York.
The very first album by the Mountain Goats, 1995's ZOPILOTE MACHINE, started with a song called "Alpha Incipiens." Throughout leader John Darnielle's prolific career, numerous songs with the word "Alpha" cropped up on Mountain Goat releases, along with hints that the songs could be pieced together to form a story. But it was not until 2002's TALLAHASSEE, the Mountain Goats' first album for 4AD Records, that Darnielle spelled out the narrative in full: TALLAHASSEE is the culmination of the story of what he calls "the Alpha couple," a nameless man and woman locked in a dysfunctional tailspin. By the album's end, the couple finally drink themselves to death as their house burns down around them. A lyrically devastating work married to the most fully realized and tuneful melodies of the Mountain Goats' career, TALLAHASSEE is the stunning culmination of the band's early run.