In “Snow Song” two people look out at the cold world of Portland’s winter and feel as cold inside their lonely apartment.

Track: “Snow Song”
Album: Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

In the liner notes of Bitter Melon Farm, John Darnielle says that snow reminds him of Portland, Oregon and his time there where he did drugs and “almost died at least twice.” Snow is a common symbol in general, but in a Mountain Goats song it is meant to remind the listener of a distant sadness and the place where that sadness lives in both your mind and your past. We don’t like snow — or those places — but the purpose and the power cannot be denied.

“Snow Song” is one of many Goats songs that deal with winter, and it’s much less discussed than “Snow Crush Killing Song” or even “Third Snow Song.” It’s just a slow, sad tale of two people sitting in a cold apartment in a cold world. The couple is isolated in their apartment by the uncaring, unrelenting snow outside, but their feelings for each other mean they’re as alone together as they would be without the other person.

It’s a familiar feeling. Everyone has experienced the line “I’d just as soon make you disappear as look at you,” but it’s the fact that the narrator chooses to express love and kindness despite not really feeling the emotions tied to the gestures that makes the song so specific. Falling out of love is one thing, but fighting the process is something else entirely. The closing “how do you feel about that?” repetition is either spoken from one lover to another or it’s internal, but either way it’s a summation of where these two are headed.