“Mobile” is the story of Jonah, but it’s also about a balcony that’s as much in Alabama as it is in your own memory.

Track: “Mobile”
Album: Dark in Here (2021)

I did not really love Getting into Knives. A few people have commented over the years here that I seem to love every song, so I think it’s of some importance to be honest that I don’t. I think a few of the songs are great, but a lot of it washes over me no matter how many times I listen to it. I’ve told the story before where I saw someone with a full sleeve tattoo of the band who told me they don’t listen to them anymore, and part of me wondered if my time had come. I will never forget the experience of hearing “Mobile” from the follow-up album while in that headspace. It shattered the idea in my mind.

“Mobile” is the story of Jonah, directly, mixed with a brief narrative of someone “on a balcony in Mobile, Alabama” who feels like the prophet must have felt. My favorite song on Getting into Knives is the title track, which feels very much in conversation with “Mobile.” In both, I imagine someone who is looking out over their life and trying to imagine what comes next. There are a dozen other songs I could pick here, but “Mobile” specifically, and maybe because I’m from a similar part of the world as Mobile, Alabama, shines a light on a moment that feels very familiar. In almost all cases, when I don’t love a Mountain Goats song, it’s because I struggle to connect with it. That doesn’t make it a bad song (and a live show will help you see that, for sure) but it makes it not for me, at least in that moment. I have not been to Mobile, but I have, at times, asked for the storm. Maybe you have, too.