October 16, 2024

The Shins’ Port of Morrow is one of my favorite albums of all time. It creates such a unique feeling for me every time I listen to it and contains some of James Mercer’s best work in my opinion.

I think part of the reason this album resonates with me so much is because it captures such a strong image of my favorite season: Fall. I experienced this album for the first time during the Fall as a freshman in high school, and it’s become a very seasonal album for me ever since. That’s not to say the album isn’t great year round – it simply hones in lyrically and musically to the Fall.

James Mercer, lead singer and songwriter of The Shins, writes about witches, September, Halloween, and all sorts of other Fall themed iconography. Each song on the album elicits images of Autumn in my head! But, if there’s one song that exemplifies this more than the rest, it’s Port of Morrow‘s eighth track, “Fall of ’82.”

Fall of ’82

Besides including the season right in its title, “Fall of ’82” was written by Mercer to express feelings he had during the Fall of 1982. Mercer spoke about this in a great interview with Magnet: “When I was 11, we moved from Germany to New Mexico, resulting in long period of anxiety and stress that triggered some change in my brain chemistry. I became forlorn and morose for six months. I was pulled out of this funk by my oldest sister who had moved back in with the family.”

Mercer was brought out of a period of depression by the return of his sister in the Fall. While this song serves as an expression of gratitude to his sister, it also paints a vivid image of the Fall where these events occurred. Some of my favorite lyrics ever come from the final verse of this song, which beautifully describe the melancholy of this time:

“October chill in that old dusty town / Halloween came I was still feeling down / Mom, I lost my sweet tooth, what’s the point in going ’round? / Your boy is losing count / Maybe try the lost and found”

“Chill,” “old,” “dusty.” These words are so descriptive and they create such a beautiful image of a melancholic, Fall townscape. These lines hit such a specific feeling of realizing you’ve grown too old to trick or treat, and I think that’s powerful. Many people experience this as they grow older, and it’s comforting to know how universal this experience is.

Something that I find myself gravitating towards in pieces of media are depictions of melancholy or despair juxtaposed with reasons for hopefulness. This song is melancholy and tragic, but it’s also beautiful and hopeful. Everyone grows out of trick or treating, people go through tough times, and people transition to adulthood. But, as Mercer’s sister told him, every “downturn will eventually improve.”

Fall is a beautiful time of chilly air, darker days, and the withering of plants. But, eventually things do turn around and the cycle starts over with the Spring. Things may be bad, but they’ll improve. In the future, things may get bad again, but they can get better then too! And even if you’re feeling down when Halloween comes around this year, things will eventually improve.