John Darnielle’s songs have always dwelled on one or a combination of five subjects, relationship conflicts, flood, water, pre-Colombian Mexico mythology and talking animals. This record conjures paranoid visions of a couple permanently on the cusp of divorce who have remained drunk for so long, they’re not sure of much else beyond the mutually destructive urge that holds their house together.

1 Tallahassee
2 First Few Desperate Hours
3 Southwood Plantation Road
4 Games Shows Touch Our Lives
5 House That Dripped Blood
6 Idylls of the King
7 No Children
8 See America Right
9 Peacocks
10 International Small Arms Traffic Blues
11 Have to Explode
12 Old College Try
13 Oceanographer’s Choice
14 Alpha Rats Nest