The "alpha couple" is a man and a woman who share a not especially happy life together in Florida. They are in love, perhaps, but it's a love filled with bitterness, anger, sadness and alcohol. It's a relationship that continues as much out of spite as anything else. Or as Darnielle sings in character during a dark, bluesy rocker called "See America Right", "If we never make it back to California I want you to know I love you / But my love is like a dark cloud full of rain that's always right there up above you".
Or in another song: "My love is like a powder keg / In the corner of an empty warehouse / Somewhere just outside the town / About to burn down". A love based on hatred: is that an oxymoron? Perhaps, but it's exactly what Tallahassee dives headlong into.