Jenny buys a motorcycle in “Same as Cash,” but she makes a much bigger change to her life than that.

Track: “Same as Cash”
Album: Jenny From Thebes

Jenny From Thebes is a love story. It’s not necessarily about Jenny, the character, having a love story, but it’s a damned love story from the band to this character and these ideas. “Striking a bargain with the imp in your brain,” the band says, “prepared to take another knock for the short gain.” We find Jenny at a crossroads where she is going to buy a motorcycle and become someone else. There are a hundred Mountain Goats songs like this, but very few of them find John Darnielle on the final, official, studio version, sounding like this.

You would think the gut-punch would be the clincher after “everybody needs to love and be loved” where John Darnielle says “that’s what all the people say, anyway.” It isn’t, though. It’s actually baked into a lot of seemingly inconsequential moments in “Same as Cash.” Jenny is buying a motorcycle, but Jenny is embracing her destiny and changing her life. Jenny is taking the step off the cliff you didn’t take today and I won’t take tomorrow. Jenny is a figure, she’s not real, but she represents a reality that you could occupy.