Apr 10, 2026 at 7:22 PM

Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains

Favorites: That’s Just the Way That I Feel, All My Happiness is Gone, Darkness and Cold, Margaritas at the Mall, Nights That Won’t Happen

RIPPER ROO’S RATING: 9/10

What a sad album. This would’ve absolutely banged when I was depressed. The album starts off with “That’s Just the Way That I Feel” and sets the tone well. This song depicts pretty well how I felt when I was suicidal.

Lines like, “Well, I don't like talkin' to myself / But someone's gotta say it, h--- / I mean, things have not been going well / This time I think I finally f----- myself / You see, the life I live is sickening”, “Course I've been humbled by the void / Much of my faith has been destroyed / I've been forced to watch my foes enjoy / Ceaseless feasts of schadenfreude / And as the pace of life keeps quickening / Beneath the bitching and the bickering / When I try to drown my thoughts in gin / I find my worst ideas know how to swim”, and “Well, a setback can be a setup / For a comeback if you don't let up / But this kind of hurtin' won't heal / And the end of all wanting / Is all I've been wanting / And that's just the way that I feel” really hit home. I really appreciate when music is authentic like this.

“All My Happiness is Gone” continues the depression, but this time the instrumental completely juxtaposes the lyrics. I love it when depressing songs sound happy. This song reminds me of the happiness suicidal people feel when they’ve decided they’re finally gonna do it. It really digs deep on how that childlike wonder gets stolen from you as you get older and how real friends can be harder to come by while “strangers that you just know” become more common.

I found out “Darkness and Cold” is about his wife moving on from him. That’s pretty sad itself, but I honestly interpreted it differently. I thought the song was about suicide with “the light of my life is going out tonight” being a metaphor for that.

Moving on to another favorite of mine, “Nights That Won’t Happen” is great. As someone who dealt with family and friends committing suicide growing up, I know all too well what this song is talking about. “When the dying's finally done and the suffering subsides / All the suffering gets done by the ones we leave behind” what a bar.

The other songs I didn’t mention didn’t hit as hard for me but were still good. The writing on this is brilliant and the instrumentals fit it so unbelievably well. This album is fantastic, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving it a 10/10. @AOTWClub