The Mountain Goats' "Cubs in Five"

This morning I listened to the Mountain Goats at the 2013 Newport Folk Festival.  I downloaded it via NPR shortly after they put it up.  It's still available, and there's also video for a few of the songs, including "Cubs in Five," which is what I noticed something about.  I should note that this live version is the only version of "Cubs in Five" I've heard.

I'd always taken the tone to be sort of cynically sarcastic.  The lyrics talk about "find[ing] intelligent life up there on the moon," how "The Canterbury Tales will rocket to the top of the best seller list," and how "the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league."  These seemingly-impossible things are then capped with "And I will love you again."  I'd always thought it was saying something akin to "I'll love you again when pigs fly," but listening to it this morning, I realized that it could just be extremely optimistic.  In that respect, it's a great song in that it means different things depending on what the listener brings to it.

The Mountain Goats' "Dance Music"

This morning I listened to the Mountain Goats' The Sunset Tree.  I'd noticed before how the harmonies in "This Year" come in during the line "twin high-maintenance machines," in order to musically portray what's in the lyrics, but this morning I discovered that this feature is also present in "Dance Music."  Aside from the choruses, the only part with a harmony vocal is the line "I don't wanna die alone."  Like "twin high-maintenance machines" in "This Year," it's an-other instance where the musical qualities add to the lyrics.

In both songs, there are harmony parts in the more anthemic sections ("I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me" and "dance music," for example - the choruses of both songs), but in some verses (moreso in "This Year" than in "Dance Music"), the harmony parts serve to emphasize particular lines, sort of like musical underlining or highlighting.