Through some powerful comparisons, “Going to Marrakesh” makes a damning statement about what it means to be in love forever.

Track: “Going to Marrakesh”
Album: Martial Arts Weekend (2002)

For my money, “Going to Marrakesh” is the closest of all the Extra Glenns songs to being a Mountain Goats song. I’m sure on any given day that answer might change, but surely you can hear what I’m talking about. Part of it is the delivery, with John Darnielle’s high notes and the way his voice acknowledges the humor of lines like “and our love is like Jesus, but worse.”

Interestingly, “Going to Marrakesh” ends with the title. Most of the “Going to” songs don’t even mention their location, with the title meant to call to mind a specific place and the people in the song, understandably, not referencing it beyond that. Marrakesh is a city in Morocco, which has a separate entry as “Going to Morocco” on the same album. Is this significant? Probably not, but a curious detail if you’re given to trying to connect seemingly unrelated songs.

The entire song is an extended comparison of love to things that can die. In verse one it’s a monster being drowned, in verse two it’s Jesus in the cave, and in verse three it’s a patient in a hospital. This is what makes me call it a Mountain Goats song is disguise, which is honestly not fair to the songwriting duo behind the Extra Glenns. Franklin Bruno obviously brings more adventurous instrumentation, at least for 2002-era Mountain Goats stuff, but he also unlocks an intensity of language that allows John Darnielle to feel comfortable with lines that share a tone with his other work, but are something different entirely.