The Alpha Couple, or people much like them, find themselves in the moments after the fact in “Alpha in Tauris.”

Track: “Alpha in Tauris”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

“The moment’s sweet, but it’s all wrong” is as close to a thesis statement for the Alpha Couple as you’ll find. Prior to Tallahassee, the album entirely about this couple, you can look at song titles to identify a song about these specific characters. You also have to look past some conflicting details, but the alpha songs are really about the emotions that go into difficult relationships rather than two specific people. John Darnielle says “Alpha in Tauris” is about one character having an affair with a much older character, which doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the Alpha Couple story, but why let that matter?

Whether this is part of that saga or not, “Alpha in Tauris” is thematically similar. John Darnielle has played it a lot over the years, especially for a song from 1994, and at a show in Austin in 2003 he simply said “it’s a true story.” We can assume he means it’s true for someone, but you can make of that what you wish. Whoever these characters are, they are in a tense moment when we find them. “I’m the model of composure out there,” our narrator says, and John Darnielle’s voice cracks over “but you oughta see me shaking later on.”

Many of the portrayals of infidelity in Mountain Goats songs focus on the cheaters and how they feel about their illicit love. “Alpha in Tauris” holds the camera on the moment after the “good” part. “My brain gets flooded six hours later,” they say, twice, and we live briefly in the moment when someone considers their actions. It isn’t clear if this is regret or just general anguish, but it seems like they want this all to be simpler, but might not appreciate it as much if that were the case.