Unsurprisingly with an entire album dedicated to John's [[AbusiveParents stepfather]], there's plenty of Music/TheMountainGoats that are more [[TearJerker bitter than sweet]].
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* "Song for My Stepfather:"
-->''[[AbusiveParents You can go ahead and hit him]]''
-->''He feels no pain at all''
-->''You erase me''
-->''You erase me''
** And:
-->" You have got that look in your eye\\
in the pinprick point where kindness goes to die\\
I'll be six years old next year..."
* "Baboon:"
-->''I'd be grateful my children aren't here to see this''
-->''If you'd ever seen fit to give me children.''
* "No Children," easily one of the most shamelessly ''negative'' songs ever written. It's not good to be addicted to a song with lyrics as bleak as:
-->''I am drowning''
-->''There is no sign of land''
-->''You are coming down with me''
-->''Hand in unlovable hand''
** And its chorus:
-->''I hope you die''
-->''I hope we both die''
** The fact that the song was used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MoralOrel'' should speak wonders alone.
* For anyone who has ever had a dream that didn't fit their community, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton" can be pretty poignant, especially the following lines:
-->''This was how Cyrus got sent to the school''
-->''Where they told him he'd never be famous''
* Pretty much the entirety of ''The Sunset Tree,'' an album detailing John's relationship with his [[AbusiveParents stepfather]].
** One of the most painful songs would have to be "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?"
-->''And then I'm awake and I'm guarding my face''
-->''Hoping you don't break my stereo''
-->''Because it's the one thing that I couldn't live without''
-->''And so I think about that, and then I sort of black out''
-->''Held under these smothering waves, by your strong and thick-veined hand''
* "The Mess Inside" in its entirety will hit anyone close to home who's gone through a mutual fading of affection at the end of a relationship.
--> ''Found that bench we sat together on a thousand years ago''
--> ''When I felt such love for you I thought my heart was gonna pop.''
--> ''I wanted you to love me like you used to do.''
* "Harlem Roulette" is about the last days of Frankie Lymon's life - he was a child star who had success in a band but failed as a solo artist, got drafted, and by the time he got back, his voice had changed. Addicted to heroin since age 15 but clean since the army, he recorded a couple more songs, and finally was about to become succesful. Said songs gave him enough money to celebrate with heroine, which he overdosed on. This line is particularly heartbreaking:
-->''Armies masking in the dusky distance''
-->''Ghosted ribbon in the microphone''
-->''Leave a little mark on something, maybe''
-->''Take the secret circuit home''
* "Omega Blaster", about the wife of the Alpha Couple leaving the husband.
* "Cotton":
-->''This song is for the soil''
-->''That's toxic clear down to the bedrock''
-->''Where no thing of consequence can grow''
-->''Drop your seeds there, let them go''
-->''Let them all go...''
* "Weekend in Western Illinois" is just so ''passionate.'' Yeah, we love these dogs...
* "Deuteronomy 2:10" is a heartbreaking song told through the perspective of extinct animals:
-->''I pace in circles''
-->''So the camera will see''
-->''Look hard at my stripes''
-->''There'll be no more after me''
* "Heel Turn 2" is about the narrator doing [[FaceHeelTurn exactly what the title suggests]], with [[BeingGoodSucks various]] [[ThenLetMeBeEvil justifications]]-- but the song eventually morphs into a LonelyPianoPiece, suggesting a DownerEnding for the wrestler.
-->''Let all the trash rain down\\
From way up in the rafters\\
I'm walking out of here in one piece\\
Don't care what comes after\\
Drive the wedge\\
Torch the bridge\\
I don't want to die in here\\
I don't want to die in here''
** There is also the heartbreaking delivery of the line "You found my breaking point, ''congratulations''."
* Bluejays and Cardinals is about John's friend, the late Rozz Williams. Or, to be exact, an emotional song about positive things that happened while Rozz was still alive and how Rozz dying destroyed all that happiness.
-->''You used to bring something new to each and every day''
-->''Or you used to anyway''
-->''But this world couldn't hold you''
-->''You slipped free''
-->''Yeah this world couldn't hold you''
-->''You slipped free''
-->''Without me''
* "Matthew 25:21", an unashamedly vivid song about the death of a loved one by cancer, in a similar fashion to Music/SufjanStevens' "Casimir Pulaski Day".
-->''I flew in from Pennsylvania''
-->''When I heard the hour was coming fast''
-->''And I docked in Santa Barbara''
-->''Tried to brace myself''
-->''But you can't brace yourself when the time comes''
-->''You just have to roll with the blast''
** Its third verse:
-->''And then came to your bedside''
-->''And as it turns out, I'm not ready''
-->''And as though you were speaking through a thick haze''
-->''You said hello to me''
-->''We all stood there around you''
-->''Happy to hear you speak''
-->''The last of something bright burning, still burning''
-->''Beyond the cancer and the chemotherapy''
** And, of course, it has to end with this devastating couplet:
-->''It's three days later when I get the call''
-->''And there's nobody around to break my fall''
* Despite its [[LyricalDissonance upbeat instrumentation]], the lyrics for "Cry For Judas" is a reflection on trauma, self-destruction, and betrayal.
-->''Sad and angry, can't learn how to behave''
-->''Still won't know how in the darkness of the grave''
-->''Long black night, morning frost''
-->''I'm still here, but all is lost''
* "Maybe Sprout Wings" from ''Get Lonely'' is a heartwrenching paean to friends John lost to drug addiction, and the pain of slowly forgetting those you've lost.
-->''Ghosts and clouds and nameless things''
-->''Squint your eyes and hope real hard''
-->''Maybe sprout wings''
** And then, the back half of the second verse:
-->''The last bits of my dream like figures in the distance, hard to hold''
-->''I thought of old friends, the ones who'd gone missing''
-->''Said all their names three times, phantoms in the early dark''
-->''Canaries in the mines''
* "Unmasked!" is sung from the perspective of a MaskedLuchador who is [[LoserLeavesTown retiring]] his opponent by [[DramaticUnmask unmasking him]]. It's surprisingly tragic, and plays like an allegory for a man delivering a MercyKill to a FriendlyEnemy.
-->''And you don't care''
-->''You look almost relieved down there''
-->''Like you're free''
-->''Like you can breathe now''
-->''Like they've sawn off your cast''
-->''One more sleeper to see through''
-->''And by way of honoring the things we once both held dear''
-->''I will reveal you''

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