Jenny hides a body, but also thinks briefly about what she’s doing, in “Water Tower.”

Track: “Water Tower”
Album: Jenny From Thebes

The Mountain Goats are no strangers to the fun song that isn’t fun. “A body floating in a water tower is bound to take on weight” is an insane line for any song, but it’s especially insane after a contemplative song about changing your life by buying a motorcycle. We’ve cut back to the future and the consequences of a murder in “Water Tower.” Jenny’s got to put that body somewhere.

I do like “Water Tower” as a gruesome play against the silly reality of it being a jaunty song about hiding a body, but it’s placed between two incredible cuts and it feels a little disserved by that. The peak of the song and the thing I remember from it always is the break at the end when Jenny says “I feel something bigger than me // when I see them trapped in the headlight.” Does Jenny view her crusade as necessary or is there something else to this? We don’t get enough time to really think about that before the escape, which is the best part of the album, but remember, there’s a ticking clock here as that body in the water tower gets heavier and heavier.