In “Omega Blaster” the problems of two people feel enormous despite the lack of their ultimate impact on the world.

Track: “Omega Blaster”
Album: Yam, the King of Crops (1994) and Protein Source of the Future…Now! (1999)

It would have been much harder to get a handle on this whole catalog in the mid 90s. The first releases date back to 1991, but aside from the first album itself, most of the early stuff has been re-released on compilations like Protein Source of the Future….Now! which has selections from eight different releases. All of Yam, the King of Crops is on Protein Source, and since John Darnielle once said Yam, the King of Crops was his favorite album of his (that may or may not have changed by now, but it was at least once true) it is worth digging up if only for that reason.

“Omega Blaster” is a quiet song, sung almost in a whisper. John sounds far away in the recording, and it imbues the narrator with a kind of distant sadness about the divorce/breakup the song foretells. In the liner notes on Protein Source, John says “the narrators of these songs seem often to give near-apocalyptic weight to their petty grievances, and I am quite sure that some of them would gladly trade the fate of the world for a few hours of relative happiness.” What better summary of the end of a relationship is there?

“And I am leaving you // and I am sorry” is a very simple refrain for a song about the end of love, but in that sense it’s very malleable. Whatever experience you want to drape “Omega Blaster” over will conform to be covered by it. If you are the hurt one or not — or if it’s not really clear which you are — you can whisper along with the character as they feel the heat of an unreturned smile and the sadness of thoughtful gifts, given too late.